A promising new cancer therapy also appears extremely potent against one of the world’s most devastating infectious diseases: tuberculosis (TB).

SAN ANTONIO (April 5, 2023) — Texas Biomed scientists have identified a promising way to help fight tuberculosis (TB), a disease that still kills nearly 2 million people annually. The research focuses on a potential host-directed therapy targeting the immune system to bolster the body’s ability to control the infection, a method shown to improve cancer treatments.

SAN ANTONIO (October 17, 2022) – Mirroring the all-hands-on-deck collaborative approach that accelerated the development of a variety of COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, the National Institutes of Health is seeking to spark similar innovation for a longstanding, intractable disease: tuberculosis. As part of this national push, NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases awarded Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) and The Access to Advanced Health Institute (AAHI) in Seattle, Washington, a $3.5 million, five-year Innovation for Tuberculosis Vaccine Discovery grant.

Adding an antibody to the widely-used tuberculosis vaccine significantly improves its long-term effectiveness, research in mouse models has shown.

SAN ANTONIO (February 15, 2022) – Two weeks makes a big difference in treating the animal version of HIV and latent tuberculosis, researchers from Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Southwest National Primate Research Center and colleagues report this month in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The finding is another piece in the puzzle of the complex interaction between HIV and tuberculosis (TB), and can help advance development of therapies and a combined vaccine for the two diseases in humans.

San Antonio, Texas (February 11, 2020) – Researchers at the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC) at Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) may have found a new pathway to treat and control tuberculosis (TB), the disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Using single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq), a next-generation sequencing technology, scientists were able to further define the mechanisms that lead to TB infection and latency. Co-led by Deepak Kaushal, Ph.D., Director of the SNPRC, this is the first study that used scRNAseq to study TB in macaques in depth. Results from the study were published in Cell Host & Microbe.

Tuberculosis and HIV – two of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases – are far worse when they occur together. Now, Texas Biomedical Research Institute researchers have pinpointed an important mechanism at work in this troubling health problem. And, their discovery could lead to a new mode of treatment for people at risk. The results were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a top-tier venue for critical advances in biomedical research.

Old lungs are not as capable as young lungs of fighting off an infection of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB), placing seniors at a greater risk of developing TB. The microbe that causes this infectious disease, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), currently kills more people in the world than any other pathogen.

Diagnosing tuberculosis might soon be cheaper and take less time thanks to a test developed by researchers at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute’s Population Health program.

San Antonio, Texas (June 26, 2019) – When people suffer from both HIV and TB, it creates “one of the biggest health problems in the world,” according to Texas Biomed Assistant Professor Smita Kulkarni, Ph.D. Now, the National Institutes of Health is funding a two-year study by Texas Biomed scientists developing a lab model that mimics the early stages of the co-infection of these two diseases.