World TB day at the Crick

March 24 was World TB day, and the Crick marked the occasion by holding a symposium covering the history and spread of the disease, the basic biology, and the fight against drug resistance. Speakers included experts from the Crick, including Anne O'Garra, Luiz de Carvalho, Max Gutierrez and Rob Wilkinson, as well as researchers from around the world, including Christopher Dye, Cliff Barry, Andrew Nunn, Lalita Ramakrishnan, Katrin Mayer-Barber, David Barros-Aguirre, Chris Abell and Veronique Dartois. Some of the speakers' slides are available via the links on the right hand side of this page. 

It was a pleasure to coordinate the Crick's symposium with the previous day's meeting organised by UCL and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and we took the opportunity to hold a joint dinner and to swap a speaker-the Crick's Douglas Young gave a great talk at the UCL/London School meeting.

The meeting was a huge success: it was well-attended, the talks were terrific, and the message cam through loud and clear that although progress is being made in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis, there is still much to be done: TB is still a major cause of death worldwide, with 1.5 million dying of the disease in 2014, the great majority in low- and middle-income families. TB particularly affects HIV-positive people, and the threat of multi-drug resistance is increasing. We hope and believe that the Crick's multidisciplinary approach to biomedicine, in collaboration with its university partners and the Sanger Institute, will help reduce the burden of this disease.

Keith Peters, one of the champions of TB research at the Crick, couldn't be at the meeting, but in appreciation of his efforts the audience waved their best wishes at the end.

A selection of the speakers' presentations can be viewed via the links on the right hand side of the page. 

Sign up for our newsletters

Join our mailing lists to receive updates about our latest research and to hear about our free public events and exhibitions.  If you would like to find out more about how we manage your personal information please see our privacy policy.