Vanderbilt TB Center News

On Friday, April 27th the TB Center hosted the 2018 Symposium, "Cutting-Edge Translational Research in Tuberculosis". The symposium was attended by Vanderbilt faculty, staff, and students, as well as TN Department of Health and Metro Nashville Health Department members. We heard from a variety of speakers, who came from Nashville, Cincinnati, Seattle, and Brazil! Thomas Hawn, MD, PhD- "Macrophages and resistance to M.tuberculosis infection"

The Metro Nashville Public Health Department organized a wonderful event for World TB Day on Friday, March 23, 2018. The event featured talks on the history of TB in Nashville and current epidemiology, connecting health equity and TB, and how to better serve Nashville's refugee community. At the close of the event, a short film, "Tubercules!" was premiered, highlighting the Metro Nashville TB Clinic staff and their tireless efforts to end TB in Nashville. Thanks for hosting us and for a fun and informative day!

Heather Ewing, MA(c), MPH(c), presented her MPH thesis on Friday, March 2, titled "Knowledge of Tuberculosis is Associated with Greater Expression of Stigma in Brazil". This project stemmed from a Vanderbilt Trans-Institutional Program grant (TIPs), which focused on healthcare in Brazil.

On Monday, February 19, 2018, Paul Farmer, M.D., Ph.D., of Partners in Health (PIH), spent the day at Vanderbilt lecturing and meeting with faculty, staff and students. Members of the Division of Infectious Diseases were fortunate enough to meet with Dr. Farmer in a small group setting, discussing our current global projects as well as fellows and residents research. It was great to hear his perspectives on our ongoing work and inspiring to meet with such a leader in the field of global health.

Thanks to all who braved the cold temperatures to join our January TB Center Meeting on Wednesday, January 17th!

Charles L. Daley, MD, Chief of the Division of Mycobacterial and Respiratory Infections at National Jewish Health in Denver, CO, presented Medicine Grand Rounds today. His talk was sponsored by the M. Glenn Koenig, Visiting Professorship in Infectious Diseases, hosted by the Division of Infectious Disease. During his talk, "Nontuberculous Mycobacteria: What's in a name?", he described the many species of mycobacteria and how they affect disease progression.

The Regional Prospective Observational Research for Tuberculosis (RePORT)- International Annual Meeting was held Tuesday, September 12 through Wednesday, September 13, 2017 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. RePORT-International is now composed of 5 regions: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Chris Fiske, MD, MPH and Spyros Kalams, MD, presented at ID Grand Rounds on Thursday, September 7th. Dr. Fiske presented her work on the host immune response to M.tuberculosis, including a focus on patients with extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Dr. Kalams presented on the immunology of tuberculosis and an ongoing study funded by the NIH and CNPq in Brazil which is attempting to identify an immune signature that predicts active TB disease.

The Vanderbilt Tuberculosis Center turns 5 this year and a celebratory meeting was hosted on August 23rd, 2017. First we heard from Heather Ewing, MPH/MA candidate, who discussed updates from the TIPS (Trans-Institutional Programs) grant on social determinants of health in Brazil.

The TB Center celebrated World TB Day 2017 at the Metro Nashville Public Health Department. They hosted an awareness event that was open to the public at the Lentz Public Health building. The event includes presentations on TB statistics, affected populations, patient perspectives, and general awareness activities. Thanks for the "stress lungs"!

Bruno Andrade, MD, PhD, visited VUMC November 9-10, 2016 to present ID Grand Rounds and meet with various faculty members about ongoing research projects. Dr. Andrade is a site-PI for the RePORT-Brazil network (Regional Prospective Observational Research in Tuberculosis), which is led by Dr. Tim Sterling at VUMC and Dr. Valeria Rolla at FIOCRUZ, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Dr. Andrade is an Associate Researcher at Instituto Brasileiro para Investigacao da Tuberculose and a Professor of Pathology at Faculdade de Technologia e Ciencias, both in Salvador, Brazil.

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.