Prof Reinout van Creuvel
Tuesday 13th March, 12noon Room 033/036, Ground Floor, Adams Building, 18 Frederick Street
The alarming rise in cases of type 2 diabetes poses a serious threat to global tuberculosis (TB) control. People with diabetes (DM) are three times more likely to develop active TB than are people without DM, and worldwide there are now more TB patients with concomitant DM than with HIV coinfection. Otago University was part of a 4-year EU-funded research project on TB and DM ('Tuberculosis and Diabetes Mellitus'), for which Prof. van Crevel was scientific PI. TANDEM used a unique combination of field studies and laboratory research. Field studies in 4 countries, Peru, Romania, South Africa and Indonesia aimed - among other things - to identify optimal ways for TB-DM screening and clinical management. TANDEM also examined the cellular and molecular basis of increased susceptibility of TB associated with DM, using patient samples and experimental in-vitro research. TANDEM was completed in 2017 and van Crevel will summarize some of its challenges and main findings.