Through its Starting Grants, the European Research Council (ERC) supports talented early-career researchers who can demonstrate an outstanding track record and an excellent new research idea.

This is precisely the case for molecular biologist Dr Tom Beneke (35) from the Biozentrum at the University of Würzburg. The ERC has awarded him one of its €1.5 million grants to further advance his research on Leishmania and the disease they cause.

This is yet another great success for the scientist. Just a few weeks ago, the German Research Foundation (DFG) awarded him 2.2 million euros to set up a junior research group . This project also focuses on Leishmania parasites.

“The ERC Starting Grant is a fantastic recognition of our work to date. Together with the recently awarded Emmy Noether grant and other externally funded projects, we can now establish a long-term research programme in Würzburg and investigate key questions about Leishmania biology and the causes of treatment failure in leishmaniasis,” says Tom Beneke.

Drug resistance is on the rise

Leishmania parasites are also found around the Mediterranean. They are transmitted to humans, as well as to dogs and other animals, through the bites of sand flies. Some Leishmania species cause skin ulcers, whilst others mainly affect the liver and spleen – the latter is almost always fatal if left untreated. Every year, up to one million people worldwide develop leishmaniasis, and several thousand die from the disease.

There are no approved vaccines for humans, and the available treatments often cause severe side effects. At the same time, resistance to the few available drugs is increasing.

Parasites can enter a dormant state

In his ERC project ‘PERSIST’, Tom Beneke is investigating the parasites’ drug resistance. Some evade treatment by entering a kind of dormant state inside their host cells. Researchers refer to this as persistence. In this state, the pathogens grow only very slowly or not at all – which makes them even more difficult to target with drugs. As soon as treatment ends or the effect of the drugs wears off, the Leishmania parasites can become active again.

For a long time, researchers regarded this dormant state as a temporary reaction by the parasites to stress caused by the drugs. “However, recent research findings, including those from my group, suggest that certain genetic variations increase the likelihood of the parasites entering a state of persistence,” says Tom Beneke.

Unravelling the genetics of the pathogens

The Würzburg-based researcher aims to identify which Leishmania genes control the switch between active and dormant states in the parasite. He also wishes to clarify whether Leishmania possess a kind of biological memory that makes them particularly prone to repeatedly entering a dormant state. In addition, research will focus on how these mechanisms differ from classic resistance mutations and which genetic changes make Leishmania more susceptible to drugs.

The findings could help to significantly improve the treatment of leishmaniasis. The long-term aim is to develop new combination therapies that not only combat resistance but also prevent the formation of surviving dormant stages, thereby reducing relapses following treatment.

Tom Beneke’s career

Tom Beneke, born in 1990, is from Berlin and studied biotechnology at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg. After completing his bachelor’s degree, he moved directly to the University of Oxford as part of a fast-track PhD programme without first completing a master’s degree. There, he completed his PhD between 2015 and 2019, focusing on the swimming behaviour of Leishmania parasites.

Beneke then continued his research in Oxford for a short period of time before subsequently moving to the biotech company Oxford Genetics as a specialist in CRISPR screening. However, after just under two years in industry, he decided to return to academic research. In 2022, he joined the Biocentre at the University of Würzburg on fellowships from the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) and the European Union (Marie Curie). Here, he continued his research on Leishmania.

In 2024, he established an independent junior research group. In addition to the Emmy Noether Programme, this group is funded by further third-party projects. These include another DFG grant, a Horizon Europe project and a grant from the Humboldt Foundation.