Research and training to fight tuberculosis

Oeiras, 02.08.10

The Molecular Interactions and NMR Laboratory at ITQB is involved in a recently approved European project on tuberculosis. Submitted to the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) ERANET call under New Indigo, the project “Mycobacterium tubercuoslis: bioinformatic and structural strategies towards treatment (MTBSS)” was one of 13 projects selected out of a total of 47 full proposals.

The European project coordinator is Patrick Groves from the MI-NMR Laboratory (ITQB) and the Indian project coordinator is Shekhar Mande from the Centre for DNA fingerprinting and diagnostics (CDFD). The consortium includes a second Portuguese group from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Pedro Fernandes, IGC) and Interbio partners from the Principe Felipe Research Center in Valencia (Antonio Pineda-Lucena and Marc Renom-Marti, CIPF).

The New Indigo pilot program aims to define a strategy to further develop research ties between Europe and India. Tuberculosis is still prevalent in Asia and Africa, and reemerging in drug-resistant forms across the world. The main objective of the MTBSS project is to provide training and coordinated research in the bioinformatics and structural biology fields in an effort to develop new therapies against tuberculosis. The Portuguese contribution will provide access to the Portuguese NMR facility, hosted by the ITQB, and the Gulbenkian Training Program in Bioinformatics (GTPB), hosted by the IGC, as well as the provision of specialized Workshops.