The Centre Pasteur du Cameroun (CPC) and the Centre de Recherche en Maladies Infectieuses (CRID) have signed a framework cooperation agreement.

Over the next five years, the CPC and CRID are committed to pooling their efforts in order to encourage the development of joint projects, promote knowledge sharing and build technical capacity for researchers and students. This is the significance of the signing, on 09 April 2025, of the framework cooperation agreement between Dr Mirdad Kazanji and Prof Charles Wondji, respectively Director General and Executive Director, of these two organisations, which share research as their day-to-day activity.

In concrete terms, the two institutions will promote scientific collaboration in the field of infectious diseases, build research capacity through joint projects, exchange knowledge and technical expertise, develop training programmes designed to improve the skills of researchers and students in their teams and in low-income countries, pool resources (laboratories, equipment, data, platforms, etc.) to optimise research capacity and innovation.

This cooperation covers areas such as vector-borne diseases, neglected tropical diseases, emerging and re-emerging viral infections, antimicrobial resistance and molecular epidemiology and diagnostics.

In his opening remarks, Dr Mirdad Kazanji expressed the hope that this agreement would be the first step towards an African network of malaria researchers. This is in keeping with the popular adage that ‘alone we go faster, but together we go further’. CRID’s Executive Director stressed the importance of pooling research efforts.

Particular emphasis should be placed on research into malaria and other tropical diseases caused by mosquitoes, such as Dengue fever, Chikungunya, Yellow fever, Zika virus disease, West Nile fever, etc. In this respect, the Centre Pasteur has a number of major assets to its credit. Since 2013, for example, the institution has been seeking funding and setting up a G4 on malaria.

A G4 is a research project funded by the Institut Pasteur over 4 years, enabling a young researcher (or a young team) to set up a laboratory. The themes developed on site are the evaluation of the performance of molecular diagnostics for the detection of gametocytes in Cameroon; the development of a field detection system for antigen research to identify gametocyte carriers in malaria-endemic areas and the effect of antimalarial drugs on gametocytogenesis. The CPC also has a malaria laboratory, an insectarium and a medical entomology platform.