Tuberculosis is an infectious respiratory disease caused by the acid-fast, rod-shaped bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (pictured), or Mtb in shorthand. Historically, tuberculosis was an incurable scourge that manifested late as hemoptysis and wasting ("consumption") which at the beginning of the 1900s "had killed one in seven people who had ever lived" (see PBS 'TB in America'), a dark designation which included Chekohov, Chopin, and later Eleanor Roosevelt.

But in the mid-1900s, medicine made great strides against disease with the discovery and use of antibiotics. In 1943, both streptomycin (discovered from the soil microbe Streptomyces griseus) and para-aminosalicyclic acid (just one functional group added to the ubiquitous aspirin) were both shown to have activity against Mtb. (see TB Drug Facts.)

Our lab has an ultimate goal to revitalize, enhance, or discover new properties of existing drugs for tuberculosis, such as Pyrazinamide (PZA) and para-aminosalicylic acid (PAS) and their derivatives, and to discover and develop novel drugs with unique antimicrobial mechanisms.

The lab’s mission is to use basic science to create a deeper understanding of bacterial metabolism and drug mechanism of action with a vision to tee up improved therapies for tuberculosis with collaborators in translational research and policy.

Our pillars are: enhancing PZA, improving PAS efficacy and tolerability, revitalizing other anti-tubercular drugs and identifying novel inhibitors and drug targets for discovery.