London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Join us on 24 March for the 13^th World TB Day Symposium. The 2023 symposium, commemorating the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, will be hosted by the LSHTM TB Centre in collaboration with UCL-TB. On the day, researchers, academics and practitioners involved in the fight against TB will lead four insightful and thought-provoking scientific sessions, providing an update on progress and implications of recognising early TB disease stages, exploring the role of big data in TB, looking at developments in drug resistant TB therapies, and considering the past and future of TB preventive therapy in light of global targets. These sessions will help the fight against TB and the care of those affected by this disease. 

Speakers from LSHTM, UCL and other research centres will share their experiences and recent advances in the field before engaging each other and the audience in a chaired panel discussion. 

Programme

10:00 - 11:00 Coffee for in-person attendees

If you will attend in person, please use the 'register' button to let us know.

11:00-11:15 Opening and welcomes

An overview of the programme and welcome to the event.

11:15 - 12:15:  Session 1: Early TB - definitions and implications for TB research, policy and care

The spectrum of TB disease is expanding with key stages or phenotypes being recognised. This session will explore the implications of this development for TB research, policy and care.

Chairs: Prof. Rein Houben (LSHTM), Dr. Hanif Esmail (UCL)

• Language and definitions - update from the Early TB Disease symposium - Dr Asad Zaidi, UCL 
• Quantifying the new natural history - Katherine Horton, LSHTM 
• Impact of new TB disease phenotypes on product development and policy recommendations - Mikashmi Kohli, FIND
• Implications for treatment - Adam Gray, UCL

Panel discussion and Q&A (15 minutes)

12:45 - 13:45:  Session 2: Big Data in TB

Technological advances across disciplines in the last few years has resulted in an explosion in the availability of clinical (e.g. pharmacological, radiological and electronic health records) and biological (multi-omics e.g. genomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics) data relevant to TB research. This session focuses on research infrastructure (cloud computing, software engineering etc) and analytical approaches (ML applied statistics) to leverage big data in TB.

Chairs: Prof. Rob Alridge (UCL) and Dr. Damien Tully (LSHTM)

• PKPDai: A Pharmacometric Knowledge Repository to support anti-mycobacterial drug development - Frank Kloprogge, UCL
• KZN Public Health Data Centre: effective data use to address initial lost to follow up - Dr. Sadiyya Sheik, AHRI
• A key determinant of predictive value of the CAD score - Thomas Gachie, LSHTM
• Genomic analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the big data era - Dr. Jody Phelan, LSHTM

Panel discussion and Q&A (15 minutes)

13:45-14:45: Lunch break

For in person attendees, lunch will be in LSHTM south courtyard.

14:45 - 15:45:  Session 3: From bench to bedside: new drugs and regimens against DR-TB

Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing problem with the currently used interventions becoming outdated. This session focuses on new strategies and compounds from early bench studies to clinical trials for treatment of DR-TB.

Chairs: Dr. Tine Arnvig (UCL); Prof. Katherine Fielding (LSHTM)

• Mtb resistance to pretomanid: unusual mutations and evolution of resistance - Anna Bateson, UCL.
• MDR-TB diagnosis in Western Africa - Schadrac Agbla,  LSHTM.
• Swimming against the current: STREAM-2 results - Ruth Goodall, UCL
• Implementation of the TB TB PRACTECAL regimen -Dr Animesh Sinha, LSHTM

Panel discussion and Q&A (15 minutes)

16:15 - 17:00: Session 4: Preventive therapy as a means to curb the TB epidemic

The aim of this session is to discuss the challenges and controversies around the roll out of TPT (Tuberculosis Preventative Therapy) for individuals with latent TB, focusing on regimens, targets, evidence-led refinement of guidelines, and whether HIV co-infection needs to be considered separately.

Chairs: Prof. Alison Grant (LSHTM), Prof. Madhukar Pai (McGill University)

• Population trials of preventative therapy history and future - Prof Gavin Churchyard, LSHTM
• Diagnostics to guide preventative treatment: are we making progress - Rishi Gupta, UCL
• Modelling the potential global impact of Drug Resistant-TB household contact management in children - Finn McQuaid, LSHTM

Panel discussion and Q&A (15 minutes)

1700 - 1730 Session 5: Steve Lawn TB-HIV Prize winners - presentation and discussion

Chair: Prof. Madhukar Pai (McGill University).

The Steve Lawn TB-HIV leadership prize recognises young researchers and upcoming leaders conducting promising work focused on reducing the disease burden of TB and HIV/AIDS in Africa. In this session two of the 2023 awardees, Ruvandhi Nathavitharana and Alberto García-Basteiro will present their prize winning work and vision in a set of short blitz talks, followed by a moderated discussion. 

17:30-17:45:  Summary and handover to University of California San Francisco

As part of a global day, we will join with researchers in UCSF as they start their World TB Day event.

The recording of the day is available. 

Session times in recording 

• Session 1: start at 0:21 / questions at 1:06
• Session 2: start at 1:17 / questions at 2:03
• Session 3: start at 2:19 / questions at 3:07
• Session 4: start at 3:20 / questions at 3:56
• Session 5: start at 4:10 / (no questions)

Admission

Register to attend in person, or join us online.