Genetic and cellular mechanisms protecting from tuberculosis

Summary

The purpose of this study is to find the genes and to understand biological mechanisms that are involved in protecting humans from infectious diseases, in particular, from tuberculosis. Tuberculosis remains a global health problem. Every year there are approximately 9 million new patients and more than 1 million deaths due to tuberculosis. Currently available vaccine called BCG does not prevent pulmonary tuberculosis, the most common form of the disease. New, more efficient vaccines are required. However, to design such vaccines researchers need to better understand biological mechanisms of infection and immunological protection against it. Our study is designed to collect this valuable information.

Participation: For this study we recruited 1405 volunteers from the Cambridge BioResource to give a 45ml blood sample. 

Organisation: This study is organised by Dr Sergey Nejentsev from the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge.