• Home
• People
• Publications
• Careers
• Contact

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

According to the World Health Organization, about one third of the world population is infected with M. tuberculosis (TB) and a new infection occurs every second. Current treatment is effective but long, 6-9 months of chemotherapy is recommended.

The TB bacilli are highly resistant to killing in-vivo, even to regiments that seem to be highly effective in-vitro. Several models have been developed to try and mimic the in-vivo conditions, which produce the highly tolerant bacteria. These include microaerophilic environment, long-term stationary state and extended starvation.

Members:

We are investigating the role played by the persister-cells subpopulation in TB persistence and latency.

The long-term goal of this project is to learn whether M. tuberculosis persisters are responsible for persistent infections. The current project is aimed at M. tuberculosis persister isolation and characterization; using some of the methods we developed to study persisters in E. coli.