Vanderbilt TB Center News

Christopher Sassetti presents ID Grand Rounds

Christopher Sassetti, PhD, Associate Professor at University of Massachusetts, visited April 12-14, 2016 to engage in discussions with Vanderbilt ID Faculty, including Dr. Tim Sterling and his host, Dr. Wonder Drake.
 
 Dr. Sassetti presented at ID Grand Rounds on "The Genetic Dissection of Tuberculosis Pathogenesis".

2016 Clinical TB Symposium

On March 30, 2016 the Vanderbilt TB Center in conjunction with the TB Elimination Program of the TN Dept of Health and the Southeastern National TB Center hosted the 2016 Clinical TB Symposium: an Update on Treatment and Prevention. This clinical conference was targeted for Southeastern physicians and nurses, to provide an update on developing treatments and research partnerships. There were many case presentations, focused on MDR-TB, TB/HIV co-infection, drug-susceptible TB, LTBI, and TB/diabetes. Many VTC members presented including Drs.

World TB Day 2016

The Metro Nashville Public Health Department hosted a World TB Day awareness event on March 24, 2016 that was open to the community. They included presentations on TB statistics, affected populations, patient perspectives and general awareness activities. Thank you, Metro Nashville, for hosting the Vanderbilt TB Center for 2016 World TB Day!
 
  
 

Bavesh Kana presents on Mycobacterium Cell Wall Remodeling

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.

TIPS Project collaboration with Drs. Betina Durovni and Solange Cavalcante

Drs. Betina Durovni and Solange Cavalcante spent three days in Nashville November 12-14, 2015 to continue discussions about a currently funded TIPS project, “Building a Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Assessing the Quality of Healthcare in Brazil”. Betina, Undersecretary for the Rio de Janeiro Health Secretariat, and Solange, Investigator at the Instituto Nacional de Infectologia, work closely with the community health clinics in a well-known favela, Rocinha, in Rio de Janeiro.

Katherine Fielding visits VIGH, TB Center

Katherine Fielding, PhD, visited Vanderbilt November 3-5th, 2015 to engage in discussions with the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health and the Vanderbilt TB Center. Dr. Fielding is a Reader in Medical Statistics and Epidemiology and the deputy-director of the TB Centre at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Dr. Eduardo Gotuzzo visits Vanderbilt

Eduardo Gotuzzo, MD, FACP, FIDSA, visited Nashville October 16-19th to meet with Faculty at the TB Center and the Institute for Global Health. Dr. Gotuzzo works on many collaborative projects at Vanderbilt, including the TB Trails Consortium (TBTC) through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Caribbean, Central, and South American network for HIV Epidemiology (CCASAnet), sponsored by NIH.

Dr. Richard Chaisson participates in TN CFAR Meeting

Richard E. Chaisson, M.D., Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Tuberculosis Research, attended the Tennessee CFAR Board Members Retreat on October 14, 2015. Dr. Chaisson is an advisor for the program. He also met with various members of the Vanderbilt Tuberculosis Center during his visit, including Dr. Timothy Sterling and multiple Junior Faculty in the Division of Infectious Diseases.

Carl Nathan presents at the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology

Dr. Carl Nathan presented at the Vanderbilt Institute of Chemical Biology's lecture series on Wednesday, October 7th on "Killing Persistent Mycobacterium tuberculosis". Dr. Nathan is the Chairman of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College and is interested in how macrophages kill, how killing is regulated and why killing is not always effective.

Andrea Cruz, M.D., presents on Pediatric Tuberculosis

Dr. Andrea Cruz presented on Friday, October 2nd, 2015 at the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Research Conference Series on "Pediatric Tuberculosis: Closing Gaps in Diagnosis, Prevention, and Treatment". Dr. Cruz is the Research Chief of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Texas Children's Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine.