The Tuberculosis Research Units (TBRU) program was established in 1994 by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. In an effort to expand to program and drive innovation in tuberculosis (TB) research, in 2015 the NIAID selected four institutions, including one led by Emory University, to act as a collaborative TBRU network. The Emory-led TBRU will conduct a tuberculosis research projects over seven years with a NIH award of approximately $18.7 million.

Our TBRU project, Role of Antigen-Specific T Cell Responses in the Control of TB, is led by investigators at Emory University and University of California, San Francisco . Human studies will be conducted in both Atlanta, GA, and Kenya in collaboration with investigators at the DeKalb County (Georgia) Board of Health, the Kenya Medical Research Institute, CDC-Kenya and the Armauer Hansen Research Institute in Addis Ababa, EthiopiaStudies of TB in nonhuman primates will be done by experts at Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Tulane National Primate Research Center. Other collaborating institutions include the La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology, Aeras, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The assembled team possesses a wide range of knowledge and expertise, and is poised to generate improved understanding of TB immunity to contribute to the elimination of TB.