TUBERCULOSIS RESEARCH UNIT (TBRU)
In 1994 NIAID awarded a contract to CWRU to establish the TBRU (Tuberculosis Research Unit). This contract was successfully renewed for 7 years in 1999 and was successfully recompeted in 2007 for another 7 years. Dr. Boom is the current Director. Other faculty involved in the work include John Johnson, David Canaday, Scott Fulton, Zahra Toossi and Christina Hirsch. The Coordinating Center of the TBRU is based at the CWRU School of Medicine in 5000 square feet of space organized to provide infrastructure for epidemiologic research, clinical trials and data management.
The activities of the Tuberculosis Research Unit include:
- Improving our understanding of the molecular biology and physiology of M. tuberculosis
- Defining the host immune response to mycobacterial infection
- Developing new epidemiologic tools
- Evaluating new or improved drugs, diagnostics and vaccines pre-clinically and in Phase I-III clinical trials.
To accomplish these activities, four interactive scientific components were defined:
- epidemiological
- immunological
- microbiological
- clinical trials research
The epidemiologic component will provide detailed longitudinal studies in areas of high prevalence of disease. These studies will identify factors associated with disease transmission including primary infection, re-infection, re-activation, and other factors associated with increased spread of infection and expression of disease, including behavioral factors associated with compliance.
The immunological component will dissect the immune responses associated with primary infection, re-infection, latency and disease prevention and progression.
The microbiological component will identify the microbial factors that are associated with the various stages of clinical illness, drug targets, and potential vaccines as well as factors associated with the emergence of drug resistance.
Finally, the clinical component will bring to bear expertise in TB diagnosis and clinical disease as well as the research interest to incorporate the knowledge obtained from the other components in the development and implementation of protocols focused at defining surrogate markers.
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