London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

On 24 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

09:00 – 09:20 - Welcome and introductory remarks 

Speakers:

• Marc Lipman (Director, UCL-TB ) & Sedona Sweeney (Co-director, LSHTM TB Centre)    
• Shabbar Jaffar (Director, UCL Institute for Global Health)
• Caroline Relton (Pro Director for Research and Academic Development, LSHTM)
• Lele Rangaka (Director, UCL-WHO Collaborating Centre for Tuberculosis Research and Innovation)

09:20 -09:30 - Global TB advocacy post-UN-HLM 2023: A political perspective 

Chair: Lord Herbert (Global TB Caucus) & Eliud Wandwalo (Head of TB, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria) 

Investing to End TB: Opportunities and Challenges

09:30 -10:30 - Session 1: Inclusivity and accessibility 

Chair: Jess Potter (UCL) & Al Story (UCL)

• First-hand experience of TB care - Samara Barnes (Affected Community co-lead, UKAPTB)
• TB in asylum seekers - Kate Yorke (Inclusion Health Division, UKHSA)
• TB in Peruvian prisons - Lena Faust (LSHTM/McGill/Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia)
• Accessibility of novel TB treatments in a high burden country - Limakatso Lebina (AHRI) 

11:10 -12:10 - Session 2: Social and structural determinants 

Chairs: Katherine Horton; Palwasha Khan (LSHTM) 

• Studying social protection using linked data: how housing, cash and access to primary healthcare can improve TB in Brazil - Julia Pescarini (LSHTM) 
• Addressing men's barriers to TB diagnosis and care in peri-urban settlements in Nigeria - Chukwuebuka Ugwu (Zankli Research Centre) 
• Modelling the epidemiological impact of a nutritional intervention for TB-affected households - Finn McQuaid (LSHTM)
• Social protection and TB: what else do we need to know? - Delia Boccia (WHO/LSHTM) 

12:10 -13:00 - Debate: This House believes that the current END TB targets should be revised

Chair: Helen Stagg (LSHTM) 

• Speaking for: Richard White (LSHTM)
• Speaking against: Sahu Savunand (Deputy Director Stop TB Partnership) 

14:00 -15:00 Session 3: New therapeutic approaches 

Chairs: Kristine Arnvig (UCL); Hazel Dockrell (LSHTM)

• Do fibroblasts shape the TB granuloma? - Al Leslie (UCL/AHRI)  
• Contribution of type I interferon responses to immune protection against mycobacterial infection - Gillian Tomlinson (UCL) 
• The role of BCG strains in TB vaccine development - Linzy Elton (UCL) 
• Modelling the health and economic impacts of varying delivery strategies for TB vaccines - Rebecca Clark (LSHTM) 

15:30 -16:30 Session 4: Clinical trials: From design through to policy 

Chair: Ruth Goodall (UCL); Daniel Grint (LSHTM)

• Evaluating the pipeline of new drugs: The design of the PARADIGM4TB trial - Hanif Esmail (UCL) 
• The TREATS trial, its implementation and implications of its findings - Helen Ayles (LSHTM) 
• Implementing the results of the SHINE trial - Chishala Chabala (LSHTM & UTH, Zambia) 

16:30 – 16:45 - UCSF Link up 

Sophie Huddart (UCSF) on their symposium held on Friday 22 

16:40 -16:50 - Closing remarks 

 

16:50 - Reception 

 

Event notices

• Please note that registration and event is hosted by a 3rd party, our partner UCL-TB
• Please note that you can join this event in person or you can join the session remotely