In accordance with the theme of the FEMS 2009 conference, “Microbes and Man – Interdependence and Future Challenges” we are holding a special multi-session event:
The Jorgen Lehman and Gerhard Domagk Symposium on Tuberculosis
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
focusing on a historical and often tragic interaction between man and the microbe, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). This causative agent of tuberculosis (TB) so perfectly exemplifies the adaptation of the bacterium to survive in the human niche that it has earned the sobriquet of “the World’s most successful pathogen”:
- More than a third of the world’s population is infected with MTB
- TB still accounts for two million deaths annually.
- No new anti-TB drug has been introduced in the last four decades and the currently used BCG vaccine was developed more than 80 years ago.
However, recent years have seen renewed activity in this area, with about 20 new candidate drugs and at least 16 candidate vaccines in various stages of clinical trials.
We invite you to attend this special session incidentally being held in the city of Gothenburg, where Jorgen Lehmann, a truly creative and unorthodox scientist, carried out his pioneering research on the first truly effective anti-TB drug, PAS, and where some of the earliest clinical trials of the drug were carried out. This session also commemorates the seminal contributions of Gerhard Domagk whose discovery and development of the sulfonamide, Prontosil, started the chemotherapeutic era in medicine. In 1946 he also introduced Conteben, the first thiosemicarbazone as a major advance into the treatment of tuberculosis
Mycobacterium tuberculosis Persistence, Latency, and Drug Tolerance
Chairpersons:
Brigitte Gicquel, France
Neeraj Dhar, Switzerland
10:00 am Brigitte Gicquel
Host and mycobacterial factors in tuberculosis
10:30 am Neeraj Dhar
Single-cell analysis of mycobacterial drug tolerance using microfluidics and timelapse microscopy
11:00-11:30
Coffee Break
11:30 Sebastian Gagneux, UK
The cause and consequence of genetic diversity in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
12:00 Ulrich Schaible, Germany
Host pathogen interactions in tuberculosis
13:00-14:30 Round Table discussion -
“Is it time to regroup, rethink and revamp our approach against Tuberculosis?”
15:00-17:15 Workshop:
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Six talks selected from submitted abstracts. Each talk will be 15 minutes long with 5 minutes for discussion. The workshop includes a 15 minutes coffee break.