Bacterial immunology
New strategies to treat tuberculosis.
The problem
Tuberculosis (TB) is now the most common cause of death from an infectious disease globally.
In recent years, there has been an unprecedented rise in antibiotic-resistant isolates of the causative pathogen of TB, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Drug-resistant TB infections are now a major driver of TB-associated mortality.
Our work
To help address this problem, we formed a cross-faculty collaboration involving expertise in microbiology, drug discovery and clinical immunology.
We have developed novel compounds that prevent intracellular mycobacterial persistence by inhibiting survival factors that are released by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Testing these compounds in clinical samples is further improving our understanding of the cellular and molecular response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
