Vanderbilt TB Center News

Prof. Gavin Churchyard, CEO; Mr. Arshad Hassim, CFO; and Dr. Violet Chihota, Chief Specialist Scientist of the Aurum Institute, visited VUMC from August 21st to August 25th. Their visit strengthens the ongoing collaborative partnership between the two institutions, which is focused on research and global health. Included in the visit were a variety of strategic planning meetings, programmatic evaluations, and a presentation at ID Grand Rounds by Dr. Violet Chihota.

Nancy Séraphin, MPH, PhD, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine (IDGM), and the Emerging Pathogens Institute (EPI) at the University of Florida visited VUMC between June 13th-15th. Her visit was highlighted by meetings with the TB Center team, collaborative discussions with researchers at VUMC, and the presentation of a guest lecture entitled: "The public health importance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis intra-host genetic variability”.

Al Leslie, Farina Karim and Lerato Ndlovu, from the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) visited VUMC between March 2nd and March 6th, 2020. The VTC partners with the Durban site (AHRI) of the RePORT-South Africa network.

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.

David Sherman, Ph.D., from the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Seattle, WA, visited June 27-28, 2016 to meet with Vanderbilt faculty and present a PMI Special Seminar, “Mining TB gene regulation to improve therapy”. Drs. Sherman and Sterling are collaborating on projects related fluoroquinolone resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and had productive discussions related to a recent grant submission.

Christopher Whalen, M.D., from the University of Georgia, visited on June 20th, 2016 to meet with faculty from the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health. Dr. Whalen is the new Director for the Center for Global Health at the University of Georgia. He also presented at VIGH Grand Rounds on "Transmission of M. tuberculosis in African Urban Settings: Kampala, Uganda".

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".  

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".

Dr. Robert Horsburgh, from the Boston University School of Public Health, visited Vanderbilt March 29-31, 2016 to meet with faculty and staff and present the keynote lecture at the 2016 Clinical Tuberculosis Symposium: an Update on Treatment and Prevention.

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.

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.