World TB Day was another successful morning of raising awareness of the global TB problem with a greater understanding from Australia's politicians of the more immediate TB epidemic in our local region and economic impacts to Australia. There was consensus that next steps need to be taken with an urgency for TB detection and treatment in the region and for more innovative research for TB control.

Tuberculosis in the Pacific: An Anthropological and Transnational Perspective.

Centenary Institute, Thursday December 15th, 2016, 5pm.

Photo: Diego Silva, Angus Dawson, Ross Upshur

We had several excellent speakers at this years TB and Ethics Symposium. International speakers Ross Upshur (University of Toronto) and Diego Silva (Simon Fraser University), travelled from Canada to speak at the event. We were also joined by Susan Hemer (University of Adelaide). Speakers from Sydney included Bridget Haire (University of New South Wales), Paul Mason, Chris Degeling and Angus Dawson (all VELiM, University of Sydney).

Topics included TB diagnosis, current and new TB drugs, HIV/TB Co-infection, TB and One Health, the politics and ethics of TB treatment in Papua New Guinea, the importance of basic innovations, and TB and Solidarity.

Ross Upshur started off the morning with an excellent talk titled: Hype, Hope and the Road to Hell: Tuberculosis in the 21st Century.

The Centre for Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control (TB-CRE) has recently funded a collaborative project between researchers working on mycobacterial diseases of humans and animals co-led by post doctoral researchers Dr Elena Martinez and Dr Nathan Bachman at Westmead and Dr Kumi de Silva and Dr Karren Plain at Camden and sponsored by Professor Richard Whittington (Faculty of Veterinary Science), A/Professor Vitali Sintchenko and Professor Ben Marais (Faculty of Medicine) as supervisors. This collaboration is important not only for its scientific aspects but also because it facilitates much needed interactions between the medical and veterinary fields and forges collaborative networks for early and mid-career researchers. Mycobacteria are commonly environmental organisms, but some have acquired the ability to cause human and/or animal disease. To date, no one has completed a comprehensive overview of the different environmental niches used by mycobacteria, the typical disease phenotype caused in humans or animals (in those that are pathogenic) and their comparative genome sequences. The University of Sydney is in a unique position having a well-established pathogen genomics unit with extensive expertise in whole genome sequencing of mycobacteria causing human disease and a mycobacterial research group in veterinary science with a long-standing interest in mycobacteria that cause disease in ruminants, cats, dogs and fish. Comparing human, animal and environmental mycobacteria will provide important insights into ecological niche adaptation. This work is supported by the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity.

Prof Branch Moody, from Harvard Medical School, visited The Centenary Institute and The Charles Perkins Centre, Sydney University on Sept 8th-9th.

Before his seminar on Thursday, he was awarded the 2016 Australia - Harvard Fellowship, from the Harvard Club of Australia Foundation. He is currently on sabbatical in Melbourne.

His talk was titled: Surprising Diversity of Lipid Antigens for Human T cells.

He then gave workshops on “Rigorous Manuscript Review that Moves Science Forward” and “Writing Scientific Papers that Others Want to Read”.

Tuberculosis: Ethics, Law & Society

Tuberculosis prevention, control and treatment is often the subject of contention and debate. How should we respond when an individual chooses not to undergo lengthy treatment because they are worried about possibly serious side-effects? What are the implications of focusing on TB reduction and elimination given the concentration of this disease in disadvantaged and marginalized groups? How do TB patients feel? What are their experiences of TB treatment? How should we understand, and what can we learn from, the history of TB policy? What ethical issues arise from new drug developments and diagnostics? How do co-infection with HIV and TB and new forms of drug resistance create new problems, and how should we respond?

This workshop will focus on exploring TB from many different perspectives, including ethics, law, human rights, sociology, history and anthropology. Speakers will explore aspects of their own research and how it is of key relevance to thinking about TB today and in the future.

Confirmed Speakers:

Chris Degeling (VELiM, University of Sydney)

Bridget Haire (University of New South Wales)

Susan Hemer (University of Adelaide)

Paul Mason (VELiM, University of Sydney)

Nola Ries (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Diego Silva (Simon Fraser University, Canada)

Ross Upshur (University of Toronto, Canada)

Tuesday, 18 October 2016 from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM (AEDT)

Centenary Institute, Missenden Road Sydney, NSW 2050, Australia

Please note that this is a free event, but you must register for catering purposes.

Paul Mason won the Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize - Peoples Choice Award 2016 for his educational children's book on Tuberculosis. Thank you to everyone who voted for Paul. The book has been translated into 20 languages with more to follow. The prize money will be used to help with the costs of production and distribution.

Below is Paul's abstract:

As a medical anthropologist, I have spent the

last few years conducting qualitative research on tuberculosis care and prevention. As part of my postdoctoral research at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research, I identified a big need for an educational resource to help people in low- and middle-income countries, where this disease is prevalent, to learn about tuberculosis disease. I decided to write a children's book about the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis.

Sydney-based Indonesian artist Amelia Darmawan drew beautiful images for this book, which is now available online for free through Enculture Press. At the beginning of 2015, I had the opportunity to pilot the Vietnamese version of this book with a hundred school children in Ca Mau, the southernmost province of Vietnam. On a quiz with ten comprehension questions about the content of the book, no students got more than 2 questions wrong. In fact, fifty percent of students got every answer correct. This was an excellent indication that this book is an effective tool to learn about tuberculosis. Motivated by this success, I crowdfunded the first stage of development and raised just over $6,000 to print copies of the book to be distributed in Vietnam next year. Together with colleagues from the Global Young Academy and around the world, I have worked to translate the book into twenty languages including Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Javanese, Khmer, Malaysian, Mauritian Creole, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swahili, Togalog, Turkish, and Vietnamese, with more translations to come. My vision is to translate and distribute this educational book in countries with a high burden of tuberculosis. The ultimate aim is to destigmatise tuberculosis disease by teaching children and their families about the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of this curable infection.

Figure: A speech by Anton Philips to celebrate the 100,000th x-ray scan for TB, on 4 May 1939. Source: Philips Company Archives.

Article in European Respiratory Journal, by Paul Mason.

This article contains interesting historical content about TB research.

Transmission of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis in Mongolia is driven by Beijing strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis resistant to all first line drugs.

Published in the journal Tuberculosis, by Ulziijargal Gurjav.

Report of Tuberculosis in children in Papua New Guinea. Written by Jo Chandler for ChildFund Australia, August 2016.

The International Congress of Immunology (ICI) 2016 was held this year in Melbourne, with almost 4000 immunologists in attendance. Several staff and students from TB-CRE member labs presented presentations or posters, on Tuberculosis related projects.

The conference was held across 6 days with several sessions running concurrently every day. Themes relevant to the TB-CRE included Vaccines, Immunity to Bacteria, Cytokines & Interferons, T Cell Memory and a program lecture on Tuberculosis by Prof Stefan Kaufmann, along with many other interesting talks.

Paul Mason, a previous TB-CRE post doc, has written an educational children’s book about Tuberculosis, which is currently in the running to win the Centenary Institute Lawrence Creative Prize. If he wins, the prize money will go towards the publishing and distribution of the book. Voting closes today at 5pm, 19th August, so please can you all take a minute to vote for Paul through the link below.

Bernie travelled to Perth to present at the Australian Society for Microbiology (ASM) Annual Scientific Meeting, 3rd-6th July, 2016.

She presented a talk titled "MicroRNA as biomarkers for infection - can they be used to aid diagnosis and monitoring response to tuberculosis infection?"

Jamie Triccas travelled to Germany to attend a workshop for the EU TBVAC2020 Consortium.

This was held in Ulm, Germany on June 30-31st.

Warwick travelled to Seattle to attend the 2nd Annual Collaboration for TB Vaccine Discovery (CTVD) Conference, June 23rd-24th, 2016. This was held on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Campus.

Greg Fox traveled to McGill University in Montreal for the 3rd Annual TB Research Methods Course, June 13th-17th.

Major themes included (1) Operational Research, (2) Modeling and Decision Analysis, (3) Randomised Trials, (4) Molecular Epidemiology, Systematic Reviews & Qualitative Research.

Greg coordinated the teaching on Randomised Trials Day.

Warwick and Bernie travelled to United States to present at the Colorado Mycobacteria Conference, June 7th-10th.

Warwick gave a keynote presentation titled "TB & Leprosy Research: Then and Now"

Bernie gave a presentation titled “A Dominant-Negative Mutation in TNFR1 Results in Increased Susceptibility to Pulmonary Tuberculosis Infection”

May 19th-20th 2016

Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney

Tuberculosis remains a major health problem in China and our region. Understanding

immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis is essential for new approaches to

control the infection. This symposium will bring together the key researchers from

China and Australia to discuss the current challenges in tuberculosis control as well

as latest breakthroughs in basic and clinical research. The symposium will open

opportunities for future research collaborations and training for Chinese and

Australian researchers and facilitate the control of tuberculosis in our region.

This year’s symposium will be held jointly with the annual meeting of Australia’s

NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control (TB-CRE).

Symposium Convenors

Professor Xinchun Chen

Associate Professor Carl Feng

Local Organising Committee

Associate Professor Carl Feng (Chair)

Professor Warwick Britton

Ms Rebecca Rinaldo

Dr Gabriella Scandurra

Dr Sebastian Stifter

Associate Professor Jamie Triccas

Dr Guoliang Zhang

Sponsors

Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology

The University of Sydney

China Studies Centre, The University of Sydney

NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Tuberculosis Control

(TB-CRE)

NSW Department of Industry, Skills and Regional Development

Launch of the TB Forum

Dr Justin Denholm (Chair of the TB Forum), Ms Louie Zepeda (Former multi-drug resistant TB patient and patient advocate) and the Hon. Julie Bishop (Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs) at the launch of the TB Forum, Parliament House, Monday 23 March.

New partnership calls for end to tuberculosis in the Asia Pacific region

Australia’s leading TB experts, researchers and health advocates met with Federal Parliamentarians on the eve of World TB Day to launch the TB Forum and to call for TB elimination in the Asia Pacific region.

The Australian based TB Forum is a new network of policy makers, health care workers, researchers, advocates and people affected by TB working to end TB in the Asia Pacific region.

Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs – the Honourable Julie Bishop MP – was the distinguished speaker at the event. She outlined Australia’s key role in tackling TB in the region, and announced an additional $30 million AUD of funding for TB research. These funds will support TB Alliance and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics to conduct vital research into shorter drug regimens and better diagnostic tools for TB.

Patient advocate and former multi-drug resistant TB patient, Louie Zepeda, told of her story of treatment for drug resistant TB in the Philippines and the devastating side effects of treatment, which have left her legally blind. She called for improved regimens for drug resistant TB.

The Honourable Tanya Plibersek MP (Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Development) spoke of a bold vision to end TB in our region, citing the historical examples of smallpox and polio. She called on Governments, researchers, the private sector and others to make this vision a reality.

The plight of TB patients in Papua New Guinea was highlighted by Dr Hiasihri, a TB physician from Western Province. He told the story of Charlie, a TB patient who has few treatment options left due to drug resistant TB.

The launch of the TB Forum was concluded by Dr Justin Denholm (Chair of the TB Forum). Dr Denholm emphasised the urgent need for shorter and less toxic drug regimens, improved diagnostics and a better vaccine for TB. “We need governments to work together, to form partnerships, to fight this truly transnational disaster” Justin said.

Information about the TB Forum is available here: www.tuberculosisforum.com Members of the TB Forum will continue to work with researchers, advocates, policy makers, health care workers and Governments to rid the region of the pain and suffering caused by TB.

Greg received the Rita and John Cornforth Medal for his PhD Achievement at the University of Sydney. He was also awarded the Young Innovator in TB Research Prize for his research on contact tracing in Vietnam at the International Union Conference Against TB and Lung Disease in Cape Town.

CONGRATULATIONS Professor Stephen Graham was awarded the Karel Styblo Public Health Prize for his extensive work related to childhood TB, including the Roadmap For Childhood TB: towards zero deaths at the recent International Union Against TB and Lung Disease conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

10-12 December 2015, University of Sydney

Call for abstracts now open

The Politics and Ethics of Infection Node at the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity in co-operation with the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine will be hosting an international conference on the Politics and Ethics of Infection from 10 to 12 December 2015 at the University of Sydney. A call for abstracts has now opened.

Researchers from all disciplines with an interest in the ethics and politics of intensification, resistance, surveillance, communication, migration and movement, research and one health/ecology in relation to infectious disease, are encouraged to participate.

SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT: via the conference website

International Conference on the Politics and Ethics of Infection