Swiss TPH is announcing a symposium on one of the most persistent challenges in medicine: diseases that evade treatment by entering a dormant state. “The Sleeping Beast: Tackling Diseases in their Dormant Stages”, which will take place on 4 June 2026 in Allschwil and online.
Diseases in persistent or dormant forms continue to complicate treatment and hinder elimination efforts across a wide range of conditions, including malaria, tuberculosis, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, bacterial infections and cancer. These hidden stages can evade therapies, re-emerge after treatment and sustain transmission.
The symposium will bring together international researchers, clinicians and students to explore ways to better understand and address these challenges. Topics will include signalling mechanisms and host–pathogen interactions, strategies to target or reactivate dormant stages, and implications for disease control and elimination programmes.
The programme spans from fundamental biology to clinical and public health perspectives, with sessions on persister phenomena, innovative treatment approaches and health system considerations.
Pascal Mäser, Head of Parasite Chemotherapy at Swiss TPH and coordinator of the symposium, emphasises the importance of this often-overlooked topic: “Dormant stages are a major blind spot in how we understand and treat disease. If we want to move from control to elimination, we need to better characterise these persister forms, understand how they interact with the host, and develop strategies that either eliminate them directly or force them out of hiding. This requires close collaboration across disciplines, from basic biology to clinical research and public health.”
When and where
4 June 2026
09:00-17:00 CEST
Swiss TPH, Kreuzstrasse 2, 4123 Allschwil
Click here to register
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