
Release of Chapter 1 of EXPOSED occured the week of May 20. EXPOSED is a four-part series of short films that tell the story of the deadly global epidemic of tuberculosis. The series will portray the struggles of four inspiring individuals – an MDR-TB survivor, a TB doctor, a clinical trial volunteer, and a TB vaccine researcher – bringing viewers to the forefront of the race against tuberculosis. Click article to view the trailer and Chapter 1 “The Global Epidemic”.
This week we highlight an interview with Dr. Andrew Vernon, the Chief, Clinical Research Branch, Division of Tuberculosis Elimination at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He discusses the progress made in TB drug development and the growing number of TB trials and trials groups.
Marcus Samuelsson owns two restaurants in New York City and two restaurants in Sweden. Samuelsson’s journey to some of the most celebrated restaurants in the U.S. was a long one — and started several thousand miles away. He was born in rural Ethiopia, where he contracted tuberculosis when he was 3 years old.
In this week’s interview, we discuss with Dr. Tawanda Gumbo his recently published paper that puts forth evidence that nonadherence may not be the prime reason for the emergence of drug resistance in TB, his research interests and background, the recent debate on the role of efflux pumps in drug tolerance and his research to optimize TB drugs. Additional links to TB R&D news are included.
This week we interview Dr. Yossef Av-Gay and discuss his recently published paper, his contribution to TB drug discovery and the focus of his research. Dr. Av-Gay, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of British Columbia, recently published a paper in PNAS that provides evidence to that points to a specific protein that allows Mtb to bypass the body’s defenses. Additional TB R&D news links are included.