Vanderbilt TB Center News

Congratulations to Graeme Meintjes at University of Cape Town on a newly funded D43 training grant from the Fogarty International Center (FIC) titled "HIV-Associated Tuberculosis Training Program (HATTP)". VUMC is excited to be a US partner site for this training grant, along with Johns Hopkins University.

A VTC meeting was held November 2, 2016, and presentations were given by Nastassja Kriel and Yuri van der Heijden, MD, MPH. Nastassja Kriel, PhD candidate, was visiting from Stellenbosh University in South Africa to attend a grant-sponsored meeting and to meet with various faculty members at VUMC. Nastassja presented on "Proteomic analysis of nucleoproteins in Mycobacterium smegmatis". Nastassja currently works in the lab of Rob Warren, PhD, who is a close collaborator of Dr.

Julian Peters, PhD, spent three weeks at the Vanderbilt TB Center in April 2016 to analyze data from her ongoing studies at the University of Witwatersrand. Julie works in the lab of Bavesh Kana at Wits in Johannesburg, South Africa. She presented at our April 27th TB Center Meeting on "Dynamics in differentially culturable tubercle bacilli (DCTB) decline during early treatment of tuberculosis".  

Bavesh Kana, Ph.D., from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, visited Vanderbilt University November 16-17, 2015 to engage in collaborative discussions regarding his current work in Tuberculosis and HIV. Dr. Kana presented at a PMI Seminar on “Peptidoglycan remodeling during mycobacterial cell division and tuberculosis disease”.  Dr. Kana is the Head of Unit at the Centre for Excellence for Biomedical Tuberculosis Research.

Aurum Institute leadership visited Vanderbilt University Medical Center October 6-8th, 2015, to discuss potential collaborations in TB and HIV research. Gavin Churchyard, CEO, Dave Clark, Deputy CEO, and Paul David, Chairman, spent two days meeting with School of Medicine and VUMC Faculty.