Four New Research Projects Serve to Curb Tuberculosis in the U.S., Train Future Researchers

Rates of tuberculosis are on the rise globally, including in the United States. This highly contagious illness is both preventable and treatable. Yet, it remains a leading cause of death worldwide.

In Georgia, drug-resistant tuberculosis is of particular concern, including in DeKalb County, where Emory University is located. Earlier this summer, the county opened a new tuberculosis clinic within Richardson Health Center to help address the growing number of cases locally, which are the highest in the state.

While the U.S. is nowhere close to the disease burden experienced in many other countries, it is still vulnerable, especially among populations with lower incomes, less access to care, and those that are in containment settings like detention centers and correctional facilities.

Op-Ed: is tuberculosis our next predictable surprise?

“There’s this tendency to dismiss tuberculosis as a disease of the past, but the reality is, it is still very much with us and it’s killing people every year, including close to home,” says Sarita Shah, MD, co-director of the Clinical and Population Sciences Core of the Emory/Georgia Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center (TRAC).

Shah and her colleagues with the Emory/Georgia TRAC should know. They have been actively working to stop the disease from spreading, especially at a time when the disease is becoming resistant to antibiotics.

“Especially alarming is the persistence of drug-resistant tuberculosis which remains close to 500,000 cases per year and the emergence of resistance to newly introduced drugs, including bedaquiline,” says Russell Kempker, MD, co-director of the Developmental Core of the Emory/Georgia TRAC. “Combatting drug-resistant tuberculosis is critical to achieve tuberculosis elimination goals and to ensure optimal patient outcomes and decreased disease transmission.”

New Projects Move Research Forward

Earlier this year, four Rollins School of Public Health researchers affiliated with the TRAC were awarded National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to investigate different aspects of the disease in U.S. and global settings, including

• Whether latent tuberculosis infections could make people more vulnerable to developing diabetes and heart disease
• Seeing if there are patterns for how people with TB who are asymptomatic may be spreading tuberculosis in community settings
• Exploring the connection between tuberculosis infection, treatment, and the development of heart disease for people with and without HIV infection

One of the four grants also includes a K24 mentorship award focused on training the next generation of researchers.

This is a major aspect of the work the Emory TRAC does and will be particularly relevant as tuberculosis cases continue to climb.

“Given that tuberculosis disease respects no geographic boundaries it has been said that Tuberculosis anywhere is Tuberculosis everywhere,” says Sara Auld, MD. “We need concerted, innovative efforts here in the US and around the globe to stem the tide of this ancient disease.”

“The Emory/Georgia TRAC is well situated and poised to join the fight and we encourage and call on the Emory community to join us as we need all hands on deck,” says Neel Gandhi, MD, co-director of the Emory/Georgia TRAC.

More About Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is an air-borne infectious disease. It is spread when a person is in a shared airspace with a person with TB who can expel bacteria when coughing, sneezing, spitting, or just breathing. TB usually affects the lungs but can spread to other organs, such as the brain, spinal cord, kidneys, and lymph nodes. It has a presence in every country in the world and is the deadliest infectious disease caused by a single infectious agent. In 2023, more than one million people died worldwide from tuberculosis. 

The following Rollins researchers are serving as principal investigators or co-principal investigators on these NIH-funded tuberculosis-related research projects: Sarita Shah, MD; Sara Auld, MD (co-principal investigator); Matthew Magee, PhD; Yan Sun, PhD (co-principal investigator); and Russell Kempker, MD.