‘TB in South Africa and co-infections with HIV’
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‘TB in South Africa and co-infections with HIV’
Wed, 27/11/2019 - 13:30 to 14:30
Location:
Speaker:
Samantha Donnellan
Affiliation:
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Synopsis:
Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is the leading cause of death of humans from a single infectious agent. It is airborne, highly contagious and complicated to treat, requiring long regimens of multi-drug therapy. Co-infections with HIV further complicates treatment, and this is an enormous problem in South Africa where TB is classed as a national crisis. It is estimated that one quarter of the globe is latently infected and only 2 novel drugs have been developed in the past 50 years. We have been working to develop an intracellular assay to screen drugs (including novel nano-drugs) against TB in its natural environment, inside immune cells as well as monitor co-infections with HIV.
Biography:
I obtained my BSc (Hons) in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Glasgow and an MSc from the University of Edinburgh. My PhD at Heriot Watt University/Moredun Research Institute was to develop a rapid, low cost assay suitable for screening the anti-mycobacterial properties of nanoparticles (NPs) against mycobacteria. Solid drug NPs (SDNs) of the first line TB antibiotics (rifampicin, isoniazid and pyrazinamide) were screened in the developed assay and compared to conventional antibiotics. Additionally, the efficacy of the SDNs was monitored intracellularly (within a mycobacterium infected macrophage) and imaged to determine whether these particles co-localised with the mycobacteria.
Current Research
Macrophages uptake TB but are unable to destroy the disease-causing pathogen through phagocytosis, reasons for which are not well elucidated. At LSTM I work in the RCDD team, investigating drug action on Mtb within the intracellular environment using High Content Imaging methods. I manage our HG3 Confocal Microscope and am the senior post-doc in the CL3 laboratory.
Fellowship
I was recently awarded the Winston Churchill Memorial Travel Fellowship and LSTMs Director Catalyst Fund, allowing me to gain specialist training in South Africa (Molecular Mycobacteriology Research Unit at Cape Town Uni) and the USA (Harvard Uni) to focus on my own research - working with multi-drug resistant TB and developing a micro-fluidics device in our HG3 imaging suite for sophisticated drug screening here at LSTM.