University of Oxford researchers have for the first time established a controlled human infection model for tuberculosis (TB) that infects people via the lungs – the way TB enters the body.

The Jenner Institute at NDM is conducting a new study using the Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, the only vaccine currently licensed against tuberculosis. People who have received the BCG vaccine previously will be given it again to compare whether giving it by inhalation is better at protecting people against tuberculosis than giving it through the skin.

Researchers from the University of Oxford have reported findings from a study that investigated whether previously identified correlates of protection associated with risk of full-blown tuberculosis (TB) disease could also be associated with risk of infection from the bacteria that causes TB - highlighting certain correlates in the process.

6 July 2022: The University of Oxford has begun recruiting for a Phase I trial with a tuberculosis vaccine in human volunteers at Oxford to develop a new way to test the efficacy of future TB vaccines – with the first volunteers being challenged today (Wednesday).

Using cutting-edge genomic sequencing techniques, researchers at the University of Oxford have identified almost all the genomic variation that gives people resistance to 13 of the most common TB drug treatments.

New analysis of the structure and function of the naturally-occurring antimicrobial agent tunicamycin has revealed ways to produce new, safe antibiotics for Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other disease-causing bacteria.

As World TB day (24 March) marks global efforts to eliminate tuberculosis as a public health problem by 2035, Oxford University researchers, in partnership with Public Health England (PHE), will lead a new worldwide collaboration called CRyPTIC to speed up diagnosis of the disease.

Scientists have developed an easy-to-use computer program that can quickly analyse bacterial DNA from a patient's infection and predict which antibiotics will work, and which will fail due to drug resistance. The software is currently being trialled in three UK hospitals to see whether it could help speed up diagnosis of drug-resistant infections and enable doctors to better target the prescription of antibiotics.