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EPFL joins the fight against tuberculosis

Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Testing new therapies in the fight to eradicate tuberculosis is high on the list of work that will be done at a new laboratory in Lausanne that specializes in air-borne pathogens. EPFL, the Swiss federal polytechnic institute in Lausanne, inaugurated the laboratory Wednesday 17 March. It is financed by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Swiss government and is open to researchers from EPFL and nearby universities.

The laboratory will study in vivo strains of Bacillus anthracis, the air-borne pathogen that causes tuberculosis, a disease that has thousands of new victims a year, including 500 new cases annually in Switzerland alone. The teams will be led by EPFL professors Stewart Cole, who is head of the EPFL Global Health Institute, and John McKinney.

Cole points out that the problem is not, as people often believe, limited to developing countries. “In Département 93 in France and in certain neighbourhoods in London the rate of tuberculosis disease is as high as in sub-Saharan Africa.And it is in Eastern Europe where the most virulent and antibiotic-resistant strains are found. Seventy percent of the patients do not survive if they don’t receive effective treatment, he says.

The researchers will work on strains used around the world, which are less aggressive than those found in nature, or even in hospitals, according to Cole.

Security is a concern: the new EPFL laboratory meets the same strict standards as other laboratories in Switzerland that work with pathogens, of which there are around 50.

Cole and McKinney

Stewart Cole was scientific director of the Institut Pasteur. In 2007, he became director of the Global Health Institute at EPFL. He is best known as a pioneer in the study of the genomes of the tuberculosis bacteria as well as leprosy. His recent studies have lead to the discovery of a substance able to combat bacteria. This substance attacks the bacteria’s defense system, a tough outer layer that normally protects it against antiseptics, antibiotics, and immune defenses. Named BTZ043, the chemical will soon undergo phase 1 clinical trials.

John McKinney has been with EPFL since 2007. The American researcher is looking to understand which mechanisms allow the bacteria to become dormant, a period during which treatment is ineffective. “I came to EPFL because there is an interdisciplinary spirit that is hard to find elsewhere,” explains the biologist. Working with engineers specialized in microfluids, McKinney has participated in mounting a unique laboratory tool that allows for the observation of individual tuberculosis bacterium during extended periods, thus permitting researchers to follow the bacterium’s evolution through time-lapse photography.