London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

On 24th March each year, the world commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the causative agent of tuberculosis. 

We have taken this opportunity to host a one-day symposium March every year since 2010, to highlight contemporary TB research, control measures and policy initiatives, and to discuss future challenges. 

Our aim is to connect with all the people who work on, or are affected by TB: researchers; people in surveillance, control and policy; those in diagnostics and patient care; and affected patients and communities. 

These symposia have been held annually since 2010. Since 2014, UCL-TB have partnered with the LSHTM TB Centre. In addition, as in recent years, we join with University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for one session as our day ends and theirs begins. 

Programme

12.30-12.45: Welcome and introductory remarks 

Speakers:

• Professor Marc Lipman (Director, UCL-TB director) 
• Professor Ibrahim Abubakar (Dean of the UCL Faculty of Population Sciences) 
• Professor Liam Smeeth (Director, LSHTM) 

12.45-13.45: Session 1 – Health consequences following tuberculosis 

Microbiological cure of TB is not always the end of disease for many patients.  A significant proportion will suffer with complications of damage caused to the lungs and other organs post-TB. This session will examine the challenges and consequences of post-TB sequelae across disciplines. Presentations and discussion will highlight the key health and economic consequences following TB and upcoming research priorities, including the re-prioritisation of screening interventions and potential therapy to prevent post-TB pathological damage.  

Chairs: Professor Katharina Kranzer (LSHTM) and Professor Marc Lipman (UCL) 

• Former TB Patient/Advocate: Patient experience of life after TB treatment 
  • Recorded interview with Dr Hanif Esmail (UCL) 
• Health and economic costs of post-TB sequelae 
  • Speaker: Dr Matt Quaife (LSHTM) 
• Rational strategies for host-directed therapy to minimise post-TB lung damage 
  • Speaker: Dr Gabriele Pollara (UCL) 
• Post-TB lung health in children in West Africa 
  • Speaker: Dr Toyin Togun (LSHTM) 

13.45-14.50: Session 2 – Understanding Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the post- genomic era 

Chair: Isobella Honeyborne (UCL)  

• Post-genomic TB research and its role in diagnostics and drugs 
  • Speaker: Professor Tim McHugh (UCL) 
• How mathematical models can be used to understand emergence of drug resistance in tuberculosis 
  • Speaker: Dr Gwen Knight (LSHTM) 
• What drives resistance evasion in TB: lessons from cycloserine 
  • Speaker: Dr Dimitrios Evangelopoulos (UCL) 
• Riboswitches, sensing and adapting to host environment via RNA through co- and post-transcriptional regulation 
  • Speaker: Dr Terry Kipkorir (UCL)

15.20-16.30: Session 3 – The impact of COVID-19 on TB 

The COVID-19 pandemic caused substantial disruption to health services and affected health seeking behaviour. TB notifications have reduced globally representing a significant setback for TB control. This session begins with a high-level overview of the impact of COVID-19 on TB prevention, diagnosis, care and treatment and solutions going forward. Following this, data on TB notifications before and after March 2020, from a range of settings, will be presented and interpreted followed by lessons learned going forwards.  

The modelled impact of COVID-19 on BCG vaccination uptake, and its implication for paediatric TB mortality, will be presented. And the implications of co-infection with COVID-19 for the accuracy of TB diagnosis will be explored using data from a 4-country cohort study. 

Chairs: Professor Beate Kampmann (LSHTM) and Professor Francois Balloux (UCL) 

• Effect of COVID on TB notification in Peru, South Africa and Malawi 
  • Speaker: Dr Rachael Burke (LSHTM/based in Malawi with the Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Clinical Research Programme) 
• Impact of COVID-19 on global BCG coverage and paediatric tuberculosis mortality 
  • Speaker: Ms Nabila Shaikh (LSHTM) 
• Influence of current and recent COVID on performance of novel TB diagnostics 
  • Speaker: Dr Jayne Sutherland (MRC Unit The Gambia at LSHTM) 

16.05-16.20: Breaking news

• SHINE trial and WHO paediatric TB guidance update 
  • Speaker: Dr Anna Turkova (UCL) 

16.20-16.30: Handover to UCSF 

• London closing remarks and switch to UCSF (link TBC) 

16.30-17.30: Session 4 ­– Joint session on clinical trials with UCSF 

For our final session we will join forces with the University of San Francisco at the start of their World TB Day event for an exciting joint session on clinical trials. The session will address several aspects of trials, from implementation of novel design, evaluating stratified approaches, ensuring patient-centred approaches and maximum impact. 

Handover: Professor Marc Lipman (UCL) 

Chairs: Dr Gustavo Velasquez (UCSF) and Professor Angela Crook (UCL) 

• What matters to DR-TB patients about their treatment? Results from a multi-national qualitative study 
  • Speaker: Ms Annabelle South (UCL) 
• Clinical trial evidence to clinical practice - the PRACTECAL pathway 
  • Speaker: Dr Bern-Thomas Nyang'wa (LSHTM and Médecins Sans Frontières) 
• First time round the sun: Duration-randomisation TB clinical trial designs in the wild - DRAMATIC, UNITE4TB and SPECTRA-TB 
  • Speaker: Dr Patrick Phillips (UCSF) 
• Lessons in stratified medicine from TBTC Study 31 
  • Speaker: Dr Marjorie Imperial (UCSF)

17.30: Close of UCL/LSHTM Symposium

• The UCSF meeting will continue (­Link to rest of UCSF programme TBC)

Please note that registration and event is hosted by a 3^rd party, our partner UCL-TB