Interdisciplinary study to fight TB
Faculty of Medicine scientists are to develop new imaging and sequencing approaches to understand the progression of tuberculosis (TB).
The study, announced today (24 March) on World TB Day, centres on a 3D bioengineered culture system developed in Southampton over the last decade by Dr Liku Tezera.
Unlike the laboratory-standard 2D culture system, where cells are placed in a flat plastic dish, the 3D system uses an engineering technique to suspend them in droplets - like frogspawn. Southampton researchers are able to better observe changes that occur in cells infected with TB.
In the new study, which is funded by a Medical Research Council project grant, Dr Tezera will work with Professor Paul Elkington and Dr Marta Polak from the Faculty of Medicine and Hywel Morgan, Professor Bioelectronics in the School of Electronics and Computer Science, to develop new quantitative imaging and sequencing approaches within the 3D system to analyse how TB develops.
Dr Tezera said: “TB a lung infection that has killed more humans than any other and until 2020 was the top infectious killer around the world. Globally, an estimated 10 million people develop the disease each year.
“The insights we will gain from this new study are essential to informing new strategies for controlling this global epidemic and highlights the impact of bridging cell biology and engineering approaches to understand human disease.”
This latest study expands on important TB research from the team. Last year, the 3D cultural system helped reveal unprecedented light on TB’s processes identifying key genetic changes that cause damage in the lungs and a drug treatment that could speed up recovery.
In the study, the team found that the TB-infected cells in droplets responded very closely to cells in the lungs of patients with the disease. This observation has widespread implications for further studies into infectious diseases, including COVID-19; in parallel the group carried out complex sequencing techniques on the cells to identify the events through which TB causes excessive inflammation and damage to the lung.
World TB Day takes place on 24 March every year to highlight the impact of the disease. This year, the theme is "Invested to End TB. Save Lives" to reinforce global leaders' commitment to end TB.