Bovine tuberculosis remains the most costly agricultural problem in the UK, with this year an estimated £40m spent on testing and compensation to farmers, as well as risks of transmission to wildlife and humans. Currently, there is no effective vaccine or prophylaxis in use to combat the transmission of the disease. New interventions are needed urgently.
The objective of this project is to identify the role of soluble innate immune factors e.g. conglutinin, in the early stages of bovine tuberculosis infection and how this interaction at the host-pathogen interface contributes to the adaptive immune response against the pathogen Mycobacterium bovis and the formation of the granuloma.
The granuloma is the primary pathological feature of bovine tuberculosis in the lungs and understanding how its formed and the intricacies of the host-pathogen interface within it are essential in understanding the pathogenesis of bovine tuberculosis and how it can be combated.
We hypothesise that conglutinin and other innate immune factors could play a major role here and this may lead to new ideas for the prevention and treatment of bovine tuberculosis.
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Meet the Principal Investigator(s) for the project
Dr Anthony Tsolaki - Qualifications:
DPhil, University of Oxford, 1999
MSc, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 1994
BSc (Hons), Biochemistry, University of North London, 1993
Academic Appointments
September 2006 - Present Lecturer, Brunel University London
September 2004 - August 2006, Post Doctoral Fellow, Imperial College London
May 2000 - July 2004 Post Doctoral Fellow, Stanford University
May 1999 - May 2000 University of California, Berkeley
Related Research Group(s)
Inflammation Research and Translational Medicine - Driving scientific innovation and discovery for diagnosis, treatment, and management of cardiovascular disease, inflammatory and immune disorders, microbial resistance, and cancer.
Partnering with confidence
Organisations interested in our research can partner with us with confidence backed by an external and independent benchmark: The Knowledge Exchange Framework. Read more.
Project last modified 08/07/2021