![New Data for TB Research]()
To develop faster and more cost-effective therapies for tuberculosis, researchers need to better understand the biology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes the disease. William R. Jacobs, Jr., Ph.D., has received a five-year, $2.85 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to systematically delete the coding regions of each of the nearly 4,000 genes of M. tuberculosis and mark each of those mutant variants with an identifying “barcode” DNA sequence. The complete set of barcoded deletion mutants of the bacillus will then be distributed to researchers around the world. Studying how the mutations affect the bacterium’s function and survival may give researchers insights into better strategies for preventing or treating TB infections. Dr. Jacobs is the Leo and Julia Forchheimer Chair in Microbiology and Immunology, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a professor of genetics and microbiology and immunology at Einstein. (1R24AI134650-01
Posted on: Friday, January 26, 2018