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Project

Tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria research cluster

Mycobacterial diseases constitute a major burden to global public health, with the best known ones including tuberculosis (TB), leprosy and Buruli Ulcer. In Belgium, around 1000 patients are diagnosed with tuberculosis each year. Proportionally, we struggle more with non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). In 2020, 66% of mycobacterial isolates sent to the National Reference Center were NTMs. The clinical significance of all these isolates however, remains hard to determine. The Mycobacterial unit at ITM has been organizing 'TB Cluster' meetings over the past decade. Some partners already collaborate on (FWO funded) projects, such as the DeepMTB study and the Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) to streamline TB diagnosis pragmatic trial and on shared supervision of PhD students. Some partners are formally linked through honorary appointments at ITM (Conor Meehan, Emmanuel André). The scientific targets that our collaboration aims to facilitate are: (1) To translate our collective findings on drug resistance from TB to NTM-associated diseases, (2) to incorporate and contribute to the quickly developing landscape of diagnostics and research tools based on DNA/RNA such as on large scale phenotypic screening, and expression analysis as tool for measuring drug resistance and elucidating metabolic pathways; (3) to discuss our own findings and new discoveries from other labs and to teach the associated skills among interested researchers within the network or via exchange with external laboratories; (4) to translate results from bedsite to bench and vice versa by profiting from research units closely related to the clinic/ field sites and basic research units; (5) to translate trial observations into hypotheses and research questions and joint proposals. With these targets we aim at advancing the TB/NTM research in Belgium and strengthen the interaction between the involved research units.
Date:1 Jan 2022 →  Today
Keywords:COLLABORATION, TREATMENT, DIAGNOSTICAL POLICY
Disciplines:Respiratory medicine, Tropical medicine, Epidemiology
Project type:Collaboration project