University Of Auckland's Key Role In Global Fight To Tackle TB
Press Release – University of Auckland
A tuberculosis (TB) drug discovery project led by academics from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland is the first from the University to be selected for a prestigious Japanese public-private partnership (PPP) investment to fight infectious diseases, such as malaria, TB, and neglected tropical diseases.
The Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund recently announced its latest JPY 1.4 billion (USD 10.1 million) investment focused on five R&D projects for the development of diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs for TB and malaria.
TB remains one of the world's most devastating infectious diseases, affecting over 10 million people and causing more than 1.2 million deaths annually. In poorer countries, over 3 million people go undiagnosed each year due to the lack of suitable, accessible diagnostic tools—particularly at the point of first contact with the healthcare system.
TB continues to occur in New Zealand with approximately 300 cases diagnosed each year.
Of the five projects, Harnessing genome mining for novel tuberculosis antibiotics will be led by Associate Professor Ghader Bashiri, from the School of Biological Sciences in the University's Faculty of Science. Associate Professor Bashiri and his team, alongside Professor Ikuro Abe at the University of Tokyo and Dr Matthew McNeil from the University of Otago, aim to research new drugs to tackle TB by identifying cryptic secondary metabolites that specifically target essential metabolic pathways in the bacterium that causes TB. Secondary metabolites are small molecules that confer a survival advantage to the producing organisms and often exhibit diverse biological properties, such as antimicrobial activity.
Associate Professor Bashiri says he is looking forward to the project over the next two years. 'It is an honour and privilege to be part of this project. TB remains the world's leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. Early identification and testing of specific secondary metabolites against our targets using human infection models will provide critical insights into their efficacy and potential as new treatments for TB.'
'While this project focuses on the development of new TB treatments, it has potential spillover effects on malaria, offering new opportunities for developing effective treatments against some of the world's deadliest diseases.'
Despite significant advances, developing new antibiotics for TB remains a major challenge as drugs often have limited effect against the infection and serious side effects. Development of drug resistance is a major issue. To overcome this, the project team will (a) identify secondary metabolites that specifically target key metabolic pathways in TB, and (b) test these metabolites against target proteins, bacterial cultures, and infections models to assess their effects on bacterial growth and pathogenesis.
This approach offers a unique target for developing safe treatments with new mechanisms of action against TB, with the promise of identifying new generations of antibiotics against TB that can overcome the limitations of existing treatments, such as resistance, side effects, and challenges maintaining patient engagement with treatment.
The project team already has established expertise and drug development experience for TB, which will be instrumental in advancing subsequent research and development phases. Long-term, the goal is to create safer and more effective treatment options for TB patients worldwide.
The GHIT fund was identified as a pathway to funding for our TB drug pipeline by the UniServices Strategic Growth team who, with the assistance of NZTE Japan, built a relationship with the funder over the past couple of years. This helped to understand GHIT's funding priorities and help the researchers to align their project for a successful application.
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