A team of infection researchers, engineers and bioinformaticians created a new 3-D system to study human tuberculosis infections in the laboratory.
The system uses 3-D spheres inside of which human cells are infected with tuberculosis. The model can conduct experiments for up to three weeks, more than four times longer than standard 2-D models currently used.
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"We believe this is a really exciting development for the field of tuberculosis research," said Paul Elkington, PhD, the leader of the research team that created the model and a professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Southampton in England. "The 3-D sphere can be created with a collagen matrix so it is more like a human lung. This produces an environment which allows particular antibiotics that are important in treating patients to kill the infection, which they cannot do in other 2-D model systems."
The 3-D model is set to be used in collaboration with the African Health Research Institute in Durban, South Africa, a nation with high incidence of tuberculosis among its population.
"This system will help us speed up the process of finding treatments and vaccines for human tuberculosis, an infection that kills 1.8 million people per year," said Dr. Elkington.
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