Leishmaniases are a group of neglected tropical diseases caused by a protozoan parasite. In Central and South America the disease is spread by the blood-feeding sand fly, Lutzomyia longipalpis and related species. The disease is a particular challenge in Brazil, which has the highest incidence of leishmaniasis. Population control of the Lutzomyia longipalpis fly is a recognised strategy for preventing leishmaniasis. Indiscriminate spraying of insecticide is, however, harmful to all insect fauna: including many beneficial insects, such as pollinators as well as prey for a diverse range of animals. The use of pheromones to attract insects for population monitoring, mass trapping and mating disruption are all established approaches to pest control. Pheromones provide a level of specificity that allows targeted intervention and minimises negative effects on non-target species. Sand flies mate using a leking strategy, where large numbers of males and females accumulate on trees or patches on the ground. The pheromone will initiate and stabilise these assemblies for targeted insecticide treatment or netting. This approach has been investigated in mosquito control, and would be expected to be more effective with Lutzomyia due to their behaviour of leking close to the ground, rather than in airborne swarms The sex and aggregation pheromone of Lutzomyia longipalpis is produced by the male and is attractive to both females and males of the species. Composition of the pheromone varies with geographical location, which results in a small number of 'chemotypes' of the insect. In Brazil, populations producing (S)-9-methylgermacrene-B ((S)-9MGB), (1S,3S,7R)-3-methyl-alpha-himachalene ((1S,3S,7R)-3MAH), or sobralene as the pheromone have been identified. Total chemical synthesis of these compounds is uneconomic, but by elucidating the biosynthesis and identifying the enzymes responsible for their synthesis in the insect, sustainable biocatalytic production can be realised. The potential future impact of this work in facilitating vector control, and thereby reducing cases of leishmaniasis, is therefore significant. In this project, which comes under BBSRC's Bioscience for Health research heading, a series of six work packages will be used to elucidate the biosynthesis of the three pheromone compounds. We will exploit the existence of the different chemotypes for comparative transcriptome and proteome analysis, which - supported with existing genomic data - will point to the biosynthetic enzymes in each population. This parallel approach using transcriptomics, proteomics and genomic data will maximise the probability of identifying the pheromone biosynthetic machinery. Once identified, the enzymes will be expressed for functional characterisation and for sustainable production of the pheromone for mass trapping, and ultimately disease control.

The project “Signe la Capoeira” is a youth exchange which united 33 Deaf and hearing youngsters from France, Luxembourg and Brazil from 6 to 14 October 2018. The purpose of this project was to focus on interpersonal relationships building between deaf and hearing youngsters who share multiple borders in everyday life : spatial, social and intersubjective. The communicative incompatibility between this two public leads in society life to relational and interactional barriers, generating an unbalanced relationship between them. In the context of such eternal communicative failure process, social inclusion of deaf people becomes a real and difficult challenge. The objective of this project was to get together deaf and hearing youngsters in the field of non-formal education and to experience a possible deaf-hearing rapprochement beyond a sharing of language skills in a commun learning space. This non-formal education pedagogical intervention aimed to encourage young people to explore their own communication resources (self-knowledge) in order to cultivate rapprochement with others (knowledge of otherness), considering that developing such relational skills is a main step to transform attitudes which will make possible the construction of inclusive society. For this purpose, during 9-days meeting of deaf and hearing youngsters we experienced the practice of Capoeira, known in our days as a methodology of inclusion projects with strong relational building potential. As an art of the body, Capoeira works body expression and communication, and is often used in the framework of non formal education. Recognized for its creative aspect and being adaptable for all, it is mostly used in an inclusive perspective. This art aims therefore to create a non-verbal interaction between the bodies and establish an effective and balanced communication. Thus, capoeira becomes an inclusive practice developing positive interactions between the learners. In this project, we believed that learning to practice the bases of Capoeira in an intercultural deaf and hearing context can be a resource to overcome linguistic, social, spatial and inter-subjective barriers.In order to measure its success during the project, we have relied on the indicators of overcoming these interpersonal barriers through Capoeira, .The activities of Capoeira through the « Jogos » and « Rodas » allowed the liberation of body barriers (know-how skills) which leaded to the reinforcement of relational skills (know to be skills). The learning of Relational skills (Intelligences) can be measured by the learning achievements that we could observe during the whole project, which are : self-esteem; self-confidence; non-verbal communication skills; artistic skills; ability to face challenges creatively; respect for one's own limits and those of the other; the construction of interpersonal interactions, cooperation and solidarity; awareness of each other. In conclusion this experience has reached its objectives which have been projected in a triple construction : discovery of oneself (his won capacities and communicational ressources), the discovery of the other and the possible communication building. In that way, we conclude that this pragmatic experience of positive interaction has been transformed into a relational learning process. This relational capacity building can be considered to be the first step to lead to the construction of our inclusive society.