Windfall for TB research project

Oct 26 2006 By Alison Dayani, Birmingham Mail

RESEARCHERS at Birmingham University have been awarded a £200,000 boost to revolutionise drugs for a dangerous disease sweeping the city.

Professors will pump the cash into more drug research to combat tuberculosis.

Birmingham and other major cities in the UK have seen a dramatic rise in TB in the past few years even though teenagers no longer routinely receive a jab against the illness at school.

James Bardrick, a mechanical engineering and economics graduate from Birmingham, has pledged £200,000 to support the investigative work.

James said: "Tuberculosis remains a global disease, which causes nearly two million deaths each year.

"As current treatments are expensive and ineffective against drug resistant strains of the bacterium, it is particularly important to provide support for research that has the potential to have a significant impact on the way the disease is treated.

"Because the majority of TB cases occur in the developing world, the work done by researchers like those in Birmingham to find more cost effective treatments is important."

There were 7,167 cases of TB in the UK in 2004 compared with 6,837 in 2003 and one of the main hotspots was Birmingham.

Prof Gurdyal Besra is heading a group at Birmingham University looking at ways to pierce the tough fatty acid layer that surrounds the TB cell, which makes drugs acting on the bacteria extremely difficult.

Prof Besra said: "We are truly delighted to receive this generous donation as it will allow us to develop our search for new drug targets on the wall of the TB bacteria.

"The coating that surrounds the bacteria is exceptionally tough and resistant to drug therapy."

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