Summary: The WGND had the opportunity to interview three researchers (Lalita Ramakrishnan, Paul Edelstein, and Christine Cosma) involved in the groundbreaking research on the role of efflux pumps in contributing to drug tolerance during TB treatment which was published in the April 1 issue of Cell. The article is entitled “Drug Tolerance in Replicating Mycobacteria Mediated by a Macrophage-Induced Efflux Mechanism.” Dr. Ramakrishnan is Professor in the Department of Microbiology, at the University of Washington. Dr. Edelstein is Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Cosma is a Research Scientist at the University of Washington. In the interview, we discuss the background of each guest interviewee, key results presented in the article, and next steps for clinical testing of compounds that inhibit efflux pumps and experiments for learning more about this mechanism for inducing drug tolerance.
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