Today we speak with Dr Guglielmetti about the END-TB trial which looks at new all oral regimens for MDR-TB. REFERENCES 1) https://endtb.org/ 2) Nyang’wa, Bern-Thomas, et al. "A 24-week, all-oral regimen for rifampin-resistant tuberculosis." New England Journal of Medicine 387.25 (2022): 2331-2343. 3) Conradie, Francesca, et al. "Treatment of highly drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis." New England Journal of Medicine 382.10 (2020): 893-902. 4) Diacon, Andreas H., et al. "Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and culture conversion with bedaquiline." New England Journal of Medicine 371.8 (2014 ..read more

Today we delve into the world of TB diagnostics and the future of leveraged TB technologies with Dr Morten Ruhwald. Dr Ruhwald is a the head of the TB programme over at FIND, an institution dedicated to accelerating equitable access to reliable diagnosis around the world. Dr Ruhwald elaborates on the current state of TB diagnostics, new clinical strategies, usability factors,  and future TB perspectives. https://www.finddx.org/what-we-do/programmes/tuberculosis/ https://www.actnet.org.au ..read more

Today we speak with Dr Clifton Barry from NIH in Bethesda, Maryland who is head of the most highly cited research group in the field of TB over the past year and has made extraordinary contributions to TB drug development. Dr Barry speaks about his involvement in the PREDICT TB study, the TB Drug Accelerator and some of the most exciting drug developments in recent years. REFERENCES Green, Simon R., et al. "Lysyl-tRNA synthetase, a target for urgently needed M. tuberculosis drugs." Nature communications 13.1 (2022): 5992. https://predict-tb.com/ Lange, Christoph, Clifton E. Barry III, and C ..read more

Today we get an update on where the TB Vaccine pipeline is up to, how TB vaccines work and what exciting candidates might be on the horizon. We speak with Professor Jamie Triccas from the University of Sydney about his work as the principal investigator on the Advancing Vaccine Adjuvant Research for Tuberculosis (AVAR-T) which is an NIH funded project to identify the most promising adjuvant-TB immunogenicity candidates for development. REFERENCES Stewart, Erica, James A. Triccas, and Nikolai Petrovsky. "Adjuvant strategies for more effective tuberculosis vaccine immunity." Microorganisms 7.8 ..read more

Today we speak with Prof Mola, Dr Welch and Dr Visiliu about their amazing work tackling TB in pregnancy in Papua New Guinea. They talk about the epidemiological, geographical and social challenges of providing maternal TB care in PNG along with some insights into treatment and control. REFERENCES: Hamada, Yohhei, et al. "The safety of isoniazid tuberculosis preventive treatment in pregnant and postpartum women: systematic review and meta-analysis." European Respiratory Journal 55.3 (2020). Gupta, Amita, et al. "Timing of maternal isoniazid preventive therapy on tuberculosis infection among ..read more

Today we speak with Professor Justin Denholm about his work with the National TB Advisory Committee in Australia and the role whole genome sequencing (WGS) has in public health. Professor Denholm talks about how WGS is expanding the way we think about tuberculosis and how this WGS can bring us into a new age of TB elimination strategy. REFERENCES 1. Ferdinand, Angeline S., et al. "An implementation science approach to evaluating pathogen whole genome sequencing in public health." Genome Medicine 13 (2021): 1-11. 2. Dale, Katie, et al. "Whole genome sequencing for tuberculosis in Victoria, Au ..read more

In this extraordinary episode we speak with renowned historian Professor Christoph Gradmann about the life and work of German physician Robert Koch. In this episode we look at how Koch came to discover tuberculosis and what it meant for the field of medicine in the late 19th century. REFERENCES: Gradmann, Christoph. "Robert Koch and the pressures of scientific research: tuberculosis and tuberculin." Medical history 45.1 (2001): 1-32. Gradmann, Christoph. "Robert Koch and the white death: from tuberculosis to tuberculin." Microbes and Infection 8.1 (2006): 294-301. Gradmann, Christoph. "Robe ..read more

Today we have the pleasure of speaking to both Professor Leonard (Respiratory physician and director of the sarcoidosis service for Manchester Foundation Trust) and Dr Montero (director of cellular pathology for Wythenshawe Hospital) about the complex interplay between these two illnesses and how best to approach complex patients with uncertain diagnosis of granulomatous disease. REFERENCES: Agrawal, Rupesh, et al. "Tuberculosis or sarcoidosis: opposite ends of the same disease spectrum?." Tuberculosis 98 (2016): 21-26. Baughman, Robert P., et al. "ERS clinical practice guidelines on treatme ..read more

Today I had the privilege of speak with Professor Christoph Lange, Secretary General of the Union, founding chairman of TBNet and is the clinical lead for the Unite4TB Consortium. Professor Lange spoke to us about where we're up to with our EndTB Goals. Professor Lange spoke about the significant barriers that remain, where our shortfalls have come, where our successes have arisen, and what exciting opportunities lay in the years ahead for tuberculosis. REFERENCES Lange, Christoph, et al. "Perspective for precision medicine for tuberculosis." Frontiers in Immunology 11 (2020): 566608 Lange ..read more

Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr Emily MacLean about the exciting modern tests both commercially available and in research development for diagnosing tuberculosis. Emily talked to us about how GeneXpert has evolved and how we can get the most out of this amazing test but also about the extraordinary diagnostic tests being investigated at the moment from blood tests of host response to bacilli to AI learning cough acoustic markers of tuberculosis! REFERENCES: MacLean, Emily, et al. "Diagnostic accuracy of stool Xpert MTB/RIF for detection of pulmonary tuberculosis in children: a sy ..read more