HPA MRU and Clinical TB and HIV Research Group

• British National TB Reference laboratory and WHO Supranational Reference laboratory
• Processes circa 16,000 primary specimens and reference cultures annually, provides reference services, clinical advice, QC nationally and internationally
• Category 3 facilities for handling DR and XDR cultures
• Performs culture ID using molecular and phenotypic methods, latent TB infection detection using IGRA, rapid molecular DST, first and second line DST using liquid cultures, fingerprinting (VNTR, spoligotyping) for prospective epidemiology, outbreak investigation, detection of cross-contamination
  

Research activities:

• TB and HIV
• Large field, clinical and epidemiological field studies for drug resistance, molecular epidemiology, operational research nationally and internationally.
• Biodiversity of MTBC strains circulating in UK and globally: implications for phylogenetic studies and vaccine development
• Development of highly discriminative methods for prospective M.tuberculosis genotyping
• Development and evaluation of novel methods for rapid drug-resistant testing (macrophage-based assays, macroarray, reverse-hybridization assays)
• Host-pathogen interaction in M.tuberculosis infection: host and pathogen genetic factors influencing human susceptibility to TB.
• Development and validation of phenotypic assays (Mycobacteria growth curves, animal models etc) for studying TB and HIV co-infection

International collaboration:

• Established links with many NRL across Europe and the globe
• Supranational laboratory
• Collaboration with WHO: STAG group
• Established links and long-standing collaboration with FIND, IUALTD, ERS, ECSMID and other governmental organizations, NGO and private companies
• Field site: Samara, Russian Federation
• Long-standing collaboration since 2000
• Reference laboratory (SORL) built in 2003 within British-Russian TB project and expanded in 2008-2009
• Liquid-media MGIT BACTEC systems, solid-media, extensive molecular biology and some immunological capacity.
• Staff trained in Moscow and London
• Experience in running large scale international research projects

Training facilities:

• Excellent laboratory training facilities in London and Samara
• Experience in running training courses in TB and HIV (international standards in TB and HIV control) since 2005
• Programmes and training materials developed and updated regularly
• Five courses for visitors for Eastern European countries and two courses for international visitors in 2005 - 2009
  www.tbhivtraining.org.uk