CSU receives $3.7 million for TB research

Research associate Katie Easley works in one of CSU's microbiology, immunology and pathology labs.

Colorado State University received $3.7 million in grants in September from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for tuberculosis research. The grants are part of a larger $280 million commitment from the Gates Foundation to accelerate the development of new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for the disease.

The two grants awarded to CSU – one for $2.6 million and one for $1.1 million – will help researchers trace how tuberculosis bacteria grows inside the body so they can better simulate those conditions in the lab and test potential drugs.

"In a living host, the presence of bacteria changes the metabolism of the lung. In turn, the lung environment likely changes the metabolism of the bacteria," said Dean Crick, grant project co-leader and CSU associate professor of microbiology, immunology, and pathology. "We don't know much about how the bacterial metabolism is altered in response to the host's defenses, making it difficult to replicate a realistic environment in a laboratory."

Grant Goals

The $1.1 million grant will be used to review the range of tests used on potential tuberculosis drugs and reach a consensus among the world’s 20 TB drug research centers on which tests are the most effective. The scientists also will review historical TB research to look for details and testing methods that may have been lost over time.

"With a growing urgency, the fight to develop drugs to treat and prevent tuberculosis has become increasingly important as the bacteria that causes the illness mutates," said Anne Lenaerts, primary researcher on the drug model comparison grant and assistant professor of microbiology, immunology and pathology at CSU. "An organized preclinical testing system among the tuberculosis community that is devoted to finding treatments will help to more quickly advance our research into results that can save lives."

CSU-NIH connection

For the past 10 years, Colorado State University has managed the tuberculosis drug compound testing program for the National Institutes of Health.

The University's Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology, part of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has tested more than 85,000 potential drug compounds since 1997. The University tests new compounds being investigated as potential TB treatments by other universities and pharmaceutical companies.

In 1993, the World Health Organization declared TB a global health emergency.