12 of the world's leading tuberculosis (TB) researchers, including representatives from one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, visited the Arctic University of Norway (UiT) in Tromsø to meet with UiT researcher, and NCMM Young Associate investigator, Pia Abel zur Wiesch. Together they will work on a strategy for improved TB treatment.
TB now rivals HIV/AIDS as a killer infectious disease
TB today rivals HIV/AIDS as the leading cause of death from infectious diseases. The number of TB patients has never been higher. According to the World Health Organisation, there were 480,000 new TB cases globally in 2015. There is now a growing proportion of drug-resistant TB which is threatening traditional control strategies, both in the developing and developed world, with Eastern Europe being a particularly worrying point in case.
“We now find a lot of patients with drug-resistant TB in Murmansk in Russia, and that’s not far away from here”, says Abel zur Wiesch. “Only 34 % of those diagnosed with drug-resistant TB are successfully treated,” she adds.
Disease now nearly impossible to treat with antibiotics
She and her consortium partners are worried about the rapid spread of the disease, which is now nearly impossible to treat with antibiotics. New, effective drugs that can shorten the treatment period are therefore urgently needed.
The consortium coordinator, David Barros from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), first heard Abel zur Wiesch speak at a conference in San Diego in 2015. He found her knowledge and perspective so fascinating that he immediately decided that he needed her to be part of the consortium. Abel zur Wiesch is now leading one of the work packages in the EU consortium.
About the anTBiotic Consortium
- Pia Abel zur Wiesch came from Yale University to Tromsø in 2015. She is the youngest and only female work package leader in the consortium.
- The coordinator of the project, Dr. David Barros (Spain) is the head of tuberculosis discovery at GSK, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies
- Prof. Clifton Barry III (USA) is the chief of the Tuberculosis Research Section of the National Institutes of Health and the most highly cited researcher in his field
- Prof. Andreas Diacon is the CEO of TASK, an institution specializing in clinical and microbiological TB research and where nearly all clinical trials with new tuberculosis treatments are performed, including the ones for this trial.
- Prof. Christoph Lange, Head of the Clinical Tuberculosis Center in Borstel, Germany
The anTBiotic Consortium is a Horizon2020 project.
Appointed as an NCMM Young Associate Investigator in 2015
Pia Abel zur Wiesch was appointed as an NCMM Young Associate investigator in 2015, following an open call. The Associate and Young Associate investigator network allows NCMM to benefit from stronger collaborative links with other research groups across Norway, and such links help to further support translational research and networking. Abel zur Wiesch presented some of her research into drug-resistant TB, and how she uses mathematical modelling to study the efficiency of antibiotics, at the 2018 NCMM Network Meeting in February.
