Submitted by Anna Davies on Fri, 13/02/2015 - 10:38
Cambridge-Chennai Centre Partnership on Antimicrobial Resistant Tuberculosis
Posted: 13 Feb 2015
Cambridge have been successful in a bid for 2M of funding from the Medical Research Council and the Department of Biotechnology India, to develop a Centre Partnership with the National Institute of Tuberculosis Research (NIRT) in Chennai. Led by Professor Sharon Peacock (Department of Medicine, Cambridge) and Dr Soumya Swaminathan (Director, NIRT), the partnership will bring together a multidisciplinary team to focus on novel diagnostics and therapeutics for TB.
I am delighted that Cambridge has been given the opportunity to work on a disease of global importance and the chance to explore new therapies and diagnostics to improve patient outcome through the use of state-of-the-art technologies represents an exciting opportunity.
Professor Sharon Peacock, Professor of Clinical Microbiology
This includes the use of emerging sequence-based diagnostics to improve the accuracy of individual patient treatment for drug resistant TB; prediction of the impact of genetic mutations on resistance phenotype based on modelling of bacterial genome data; the development of an in-depth understanding of bacterial genes associated with so-called ‘drug tolerance’; and novel approaches to treatment of TB based on immunomodulation (enhancement of autophagy and novel enhancers of T cell responsiveness).
"I am delighted that Cambridge has been given the opportunity to work on a disease of global importance through the development of a Centre Partnership with Dr Soumya Swaminathan and her colleagues at the National Institute of Research on Tuberculosis in Chennai, India", said Professor Sharon Peacock. "This was the site for many of the early MRC-funded TB treatment trials, and the chance to explore new therapies and diagnostics to improve patient outcome through the use of state-of-the-art technologies represents an exciting opportunity."
Additional Cambridge PIs are Professors Lalita Ramakrishnan, Ken Smith, Tom Blundell and Andres Floto, while Dr Estée Török will provide advice to the Cambridge investigators in relation to ethics, Good Clinical Practice, and the design and implementation of clinical studies. Transfer of scientific training and technology to India will foster independent research capacity and future international collaborative projects. This will be achieved through mobility and exchange of junior (training) and senior (discipline-hopping) researchers.
The Newton Fund
The Newton Fund is a new initiative intended to strengthen research and innovation partnerships between the UK and emerging knowledge economies. It was launched by the Chancellor in April 2014, and will deliver £375 million of funding over the course of five years.
The Fund forms part of the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitment which is monitored by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). ODA funded activity focuses on outcomes that promote the long-term sustainable growth of countries on the OECD Development Assistance Committee list. Newton Fund countries represent a sub-set of this list. For more information please visit the MRC Newton Fund page.