Cambridge-Chennai Centre Partnership on Antimicrobial Resistant Tuberculosis

建立一个印度-英国中心联合伙伴关系以关注耐药结核病（TB）的必要性是基于印度和全球这一问题的规模，以及开发抗击结核病的新工具和治疗方法的迫切需要。2012年，印度报告了1467585例结核病病例（世界上病例数最多的国家），被诊断患有耐多药结核病的人数急剧增加（2008年至2012年期间，实验室确诊病例从308例增加到16588例）。我们剑桥大学与印度金奈国家结核病研究所（NIRT）之间的伙伴关系将汇集一个多学科团队，重点研究结核病的新诊断和治疗方法。这包括使用新兴的基于序列的诊断方法，以提高耐多药和广泛耐药结核病患者个体治疗的准确性；结核病新药物靶点和基于细菌基因组数据建模的耐药突变影响的预测/研究；深入了解结核分枝杆菌不同种群中与所谓“耐药性”相关的细菌基因；以及基于免疫调节（增强自噬和T细胞反应性的新型增强剂）的结核病治疗新方法。该中心伙伴关系将产生丰富和持久的临床和基因组数据集。我们的目标需要对患者群体进行详细的临床和生物学表型和基因分型，这些数据可以用于解决未来的问题，并将进一步加强合作研究，以应对耐药结核病的负担。我们还将在培训和知识转移方面进行创新。利用新技术将增加英国和印度研究人员的相关和合作研究经验。向印度转让科学培训和技术提高了独立研究能力，并促进了未来的国际合作项目。这将通过初级（培训）和高级（学科跳跃）研究人员的流动和交流来实现。

The need for a joint India-UK Centre Partnership focused on drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is founded on the scale of the problem both in India and globally, combined with the pressing need to develop new tools and therapeutics to combat it. There were 1,467,585 cases of TB notified in India during 2012 (the largest number of cases in any country worldwide), with a sharp rise in the number of people diagnosed with multidrug resistant (MDR) TB (from 308 to 16,588 laboratory confirmed cases between 2008 and 2012). Our partnership between the University of Cambridge and the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT) in Chennai, India, will bring together a multidisciplinary team to focus on novel diagnostics and therapeutics for TB. This includes the use of emerging sequence-based diagnostics to improve the accuracy of individual patient treatment for MDR and extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB; new drug targets for TB and prediction/investigation of the impact of resistance mutations based on modelling of bacterial genome data; the development of an in-depth understanding of the bacterial genes in diverse populations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis associated with so-called 'drug tolerance'; and novel approaches to treatment of TB based on immunomodulation (enhancement of autophagy and novel enhancers of T cell responsiveness). The Centre Partnership will generate a rich and lasting clinical and genomic dataset. Our objectives require detailed clinical and biological phenotyping and genotyping of patient cohorts, which can be mined to address future questions and will further enhance collaborative research to tackle the burden of drug-resistant TB. We will also innovate in training and knowledge transfer. Leveraging of novel technologies will increase relevant and collaborative research experience for UK and Indian investigators. Transfer of scientific training and technology to India enhances independent research capacity and fosters future international collaborative projects. This will be achieved through mobility and exchange of junior (training) and senior (discipline-hopping) researchers.