Wellcome Discovery Award for Rick Maizels’ Research on Parasitic Worms
Professor Rick Maizels has received a substantial grant of approximately €4 million from the Wellcome Trust. Maizels investigates how parasitic worms can protect us from asthma and allergies. Thanks to the Wellcome Discovery Award, he can continue his groundbreaking work.
Protection
Maizels is a professor of parasitology at the University of Glasgow and one of the lead researchers in the LONGFONDS | Accelerate research program, an international initiative focused on preventing asthma in children. His work examines how parasitic worms influence the immune system and may even protect against diseases like asthma and allergies.
A Clever Trick
In countries where children are often infected with parasitic worms, asthma and allergies are less common. The immune systems of these children respond less aggressively to stimuli. This is because the worms employ a clever trick to slow down the immune system. They secrete special proteins that keep the immune system calm, allowing the worms to survive in the body. At the same time, these proteins appear to provide protection against asthma and allergies.
Building Blocks
Through LONGFONDS | Accelerate, Maizels and his colleagues identified the special proteins secreted by the worms. These proteins share similarities, as if they belong to the same ‘family’. They have the same foundation but are equipped with different ‘building blocks’. These building blocks determine where the proteins go and which cells they affect. Some proteins suppress the immune system, while others strengthen it, depending on the cells they attach to. This process resembles cell therapy—a treatment that uses cells to repair damage in the body.
Steering the Immune System
The Wellcome Discovery Award enables further research into the special proteins of parasitic worms. The new consortium includes Rick Maizels as well as several members of the former LONGFONDS | Accelerate consortium, such as Professor Hermelijn Smits from Leiden University Medical Center and Dr. Henry McSorley.
The follow-up research focuses on precisely how this "cell therapy" by the proteins works and whether this process can be manipulated. This could not only provide insights into how to adjust the immune systems of people with asthma, for instance, but it might also pave the way for new treatments for asthma patients.
