Alexander Mohapatra, MD, PhD

Tuberculosis remains a leading infectious cause of death worldwide, in part due to the lack of an effective vaccine and the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains. We have shown in mice that an immune cell called the monocyte enters the infected lung from the blood and matures into two different cell types, only one of which kills M. tuberculosis effectively. Consequently, the cells that enable M. tuberculosis survival contain most of the pathogens in the lung. Moreover, these cells are not very accessible to other protective immune cells or current drugs. We will study how monocytes mature in order to develop new therapies that increase production of the cells that can kill M. tuberculosis. These findings will improve the effectiveness of current tuberculosis regimens and shorten treatment times.