Message from the Director

On March 24, 1882 Robert Koch announced to the world his discovery of the causative agent of tuberculosis. More than 50 years passed before the first effective drug – streptomycin -  was discovered for this disease.  Over the next 25 years a number of additional drugs were discovered, forming the basis of our current TB drug regimen. Using these drugs requires 6 months of treatment for drug-sensitive TB and up to several years for multiple drug-resistant (MDR) or extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB. It has now been over 40 years since the introduction of the last drug developed primarily for use in TB – rifampin. Why?

As the disease continued to decline in countries where the standard of living was improving – the same countries that we relied upon for drug discovery/development –there was no rush to improve TB treatment with drugs that work faster or are less toxic. Now after years of neglect, we find the issues of HIV-TB co-infection and increasing drug resistance creating a sense of urgency as the global TB situation becomes more precarious. TB is the number one killer of those with AIDS.  MDR and XDR TB are showing up everywhere that we look, including the industrialized countries.

The Institute for Tuberculosis Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago has the singular mission of helping to discover and develop new treatments for TB. We not only pursue new TB drug discovery in-house, but we assist any individual or organization that is also interested in pursuing this goal by making available our expertise and resources. The need is too great and the consequences of failure too dire, to consider viewing our peers as competitors. Together we can bring desperately needed new TB drugs to the clinic.

Scott Franzblau

March 2010 

Chicago, Illinois