Vanderbilt TB Center News

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.

This article was published in the Research News @ Vanderbilt online blog. Original publication: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29334197 "When they occur among people living with HIV, certain cancers and opportunistic infections are considered by health authorities as AIDS-defining events, or ADEs.

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

Results from the iAdhere trial conducted through the TB Trials Consortium have been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. This randomized trial aimed to compare treatment completion and safety of once-weekly isoniazid and rifapentine by self-administration versus direct observation. Enrollment sites were located in the US, Spain, Hong Kong, and South Africa; Vanderbilt and the Metro Nashville Health Department participated in enrollment.

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.

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.

Congratulations to Fernanda Maruri, MPH, who was awarded the Vivien A. Thomas Award for Excellence in Clinical Research during the 13th annual Research Staff Awards! Fernanda is a clinical and translational research coordinator III in the Division of Infectious Diseases and has worked with Dr. Tim Sterling for over 10 years. Fernanda earned her master’s degree in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 2004 she was hired by Timothy Sterling, M.D., to coordinate a clinical tuberculosis study.

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.