Colorado State awarded $1.2 million for tuberculosis research

Researchers at Colorado State University were awarded a $1.2 million subcontract from the Infectious Disease Research Institute in Seattle for immunology research to accelerate progress in tuberculosis vaccine development.

The institute is part of the National Institutes of Health, which gave a $44.8 million, seven-year award to the institute for this project. Over the next seven years, CSU may be awarded an additional $10.5 million to continue this work.

The team of researchers from the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology at Colorado State University aim to advance what is known about the complex immune response necessary to prevent tuberculosis disease.

Tuberculosis has claimed the lives of more than 1 billion people over the past 200 years. Currently, there is only one vaccine for tuberculosis, and it was created nearly 100 years ago. The vaccine protects children from TB but the protection it gives to adults is highly variable.

Scientists at the Infectious Disease Research Institute are working on a vaccine candidate which has been shown in clinical trials to evoke a strong immune response. The study will continue as research teams work to develop a comprehensive understanding of the immune responses required to prevent initial infection.

At CSU at least 20 researchers, including students and staff, will work toward that end. CSU professors Marcela Henao-Tamayo and Brendan Podell lead the CSU team. Podell said the initiative “will be perhaps the most comprehensive pathology assessment of vaccine and TB immunity ever done.”

“Brendan and I were both trained in these labs, and we’re now leading the charge on this new research,” Henao-Tamayo said.