University Hospital Bonn
The University of Bonn, founded in 1818, is one of the strongest research Universities in Germany (1st in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), 6th in Germany, becoming officially a “University of Excellence” in 2019). Moreover, Bonn/Köln a partner site of the DZIF (Germany Centre of Infection Research), specialised in clinical research, coordinated by Professor Achim Hoerauf and funding the professorship of Prof. Dr. Marc Hübner. The Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology (IMMIP) is headed by Prof. Dr. Achim Hoerauf and is world-known for its primary, preclinical and clinical research on filariasis. The IMMIP belongs to the Medical Faculty and is part of the University Hospital Bonn (UKB). In addition, Prof. Dr. Marc Hübner and Prof. Dr. Achim Hoerauf are members of the Cluster of Excellence “ImmunoSensation2,” which qualifies the UKB as one of the Top Universities in Germany specifically in this area of research. Further, the UKB is a full-care hospital with more than 8,500 employees performing tasks in research, teaching and patient care as well as in public health at the highest level. The UKB has the fourth-highest case-mix index and the best economic result of the university hospitals in Germany and is ranked first among the university hospitals in NRW the science ranking (LOMV).
Role within eWHORM
Together with Dr. Sabine Specht, located at DNDi (Switzerland), Prof. Hübner (UKB) coordinates the eWHORM project. The UKB will support this project with its expertise in doing clinical trials in filariasis patients. The UKB is essentially involved in all work packages and leads the "Clinical trial conduct and biobanking" and "Project management and scientific coordination" work packages.
Our mission in eWHORM is to provide the proof of concept for the efficacy of Oxfendazole (OXF) for the treatment of tropical helminth (worm) infections, namely onchocerciasis, loiasis, mansonellosis, and trichuriasis. To do this, we will set up a state-of-the-art clinical basket trial that will evaluate the efficacy of OXF against multiple diseases at once. We aim to provide a pan-nematode drug treatment that facilitates the elimination of filarial and soil-transmitted helminth infections
- Prof. Marc P. Hübner