The money will help a group of 17 interdisciplinary researchers work collaboratively on the development of compounds that work against mycobacterium tuberculosis.
The Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research (IOI) has awarded £5 million to a group of 17 interdisciplinary researchers from Oxford University to develop new therapies for drug-resistant tuberculosis.
The consortium comprising chemists, biologists, clinicians, vaccinologists and health sociologists will work collaboratively through five interconnected stages from drug discovery and testing to clinical trials and public engagement to develop new therapies for tuberculosis.
The interconnected stages of the project include medicinal chemistry to identify new compounds effective against the bacterium mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) which will then be evaluated.
This will be followed by digital microbiology and computational science to support therapeutic development. Finally, there will be clinical trials for the therapies leading to the preparation of the clinical pipeline.
Facilitate collaboration
Tuberculosis remains the oldest and most deadly disease in human history and is responsible for more than 1.2 million deaths every year.
The main treatment option for tuberculosis is long courses of multiple antibiotics. However antimicrobial resistance has made this harder. The IOI estimates that half a million people are infected with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis each year.
“Tuberculosis is a perfect example of how we are returning to the pre-antibiotic era. Over 95% of tuberculosis patients used to be cured but now multidrug-resistant tuberculosis has become a leading cause of death due to antimicrobial resistance,” said Stewart Cole, executive chair of the IOI.
“The IOI Grand Challenge award will bring together researchers with complementary skills to establish a successful pipeline for tuberculosis drug and therapeutic vaccine development spanning molecular epidemiology, medicinal chemistry, in vitro and in vivo evaluation, and clinical trials in regions most affected by this disease… The IOI Grand challenge award will facilitate collaborations across different disciplines and sectors to help solve this global health crisis,” he continued.
