Conquering MDR-TB — The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has awarded a four-year, $2.7 million renewal grant to Dr. John Blanchard for his continuing efforts to find novel therapies for multidrug-resistant cases of tuberculosis ( MDR-TB), which causes more than a million TB deaths each year. Dr. Blanchard and colleagues previously found that the bacterial species that causes TB possesses enzymes, called acetyltransferases, that undergo reversible modifications that may alter bacterial growth. Dr. Blanchard will use the federal grant to examine how these acetyltransferases affect the host response to bacterial infection. Dr. Blanchard is professor of biochemistry and the Dan Danciger Professor of Biochemistry.
Posted on: Wednesday, September 03, 2014