IMMUNOLOGY OF RESPIRATORY DISEASES
The aim of the laboratory is to elucidate the mechanisms that regulate the immune response in tuberculosis (TB), a disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. M. tuberculosis is a highly virulent human pathogen that infects approximately one quarter of the world's population. Although TB is a treatable and curable disease, it remains one of the 10 leading causes of death. In 2021, 10.0 million new cases and 1.6 million deaths due to TB were reported worldwide. The current TB vaccine (BCG) is efficient only against disseminated forms of TB in childhood and has variable efficacy in the adult population. In 2021, 14,000 new cases of TB were registered in Argentina, constituting a major public health problem due to its high incidence, the emergence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strains, co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the limited efficacy of the BCG vaccine. TB research and innovation is of urgent global interest and there is a particular need to improve our understanding of the immune response against M. tuberculosis by conducting innovative research with translational potential to improve the control of TB.
Chair: María del Carmen Sasiain, PhD
CONICET Principal researcher.
Email: msasiain@hematologia.anm.edu.ar