November VTC Meeting: Nastassja Kriel and Yuri van der Heijden
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.
David Sherman visits Vanderbilt TB Center
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 presents VIGH Grand Rounds
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, Post-doc from Wits University
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 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".
Dr. C. Robert Horsburgh visits Vanderbilt, presents at Clinical TB Symposium
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.
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.