Vanderbilt TB Center News

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.

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, 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.

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, 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.