Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by the mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. TB spreads through droplets from coughs or sneezes of someone who has an active TB infection. TB most commonly affects the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. The Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccine is currently the only vaccine available, but it does not protect the lungs from TB. 

In their project titled Elucidating How to Design Vaccines That Can Induce Protective Immunity in the Lungs, principle investigators Dr. Aneesh Thakur and Dr. Azita Haddadi from the University of Saskatchewan will be studying a strategy to help protect the lining of the lungs better against TB. 

Hope for the Future

It is the hope of this team that this research will significantly improve the global efforts to enhance the induction of vaccine-induced mucosal immunity and provide better protection against TB in the lungs.