Successful Second Stool4TB Annual Consortium Meeting
The second annual Stool4TB meeting was held last month in Kampala, Uganda where constituents from all consortium members congregated to discuss progress of the last year, the first interim results and upcoming plans for the project. The meeting brought together 27 people from six countries to share knowledge, visit the consortium sites, take courses in the labs, and tour the laboratory facilities at Makerere University.
The Stool4TB meeting took place over the course of three days. The first day was a joint scientific day with two other EDCTP projects on TB diagnostics: PreFIT (https://predictingtb.org/news/partners-of-the-prefit-project-met-in-kampala-uganda/) and CageTB (https://www.cagetb.org). Each of the 9 PhD students from all three projects gave a short presentation on their planned research. The students received questions and feedback from researchers within all the projects. This led to a great exchange of ideas, and the formation of cross-project groups of students working on similar topics. The benefit of this day was insurmountable for the PhD students, as they were given the spotlight and shared their successes and struggles over the course of the projects thus far. In addition it was inspiring to see the exciting science which will emanate from these projects.
After the PhD presentations, Makerere University College of Medicine held a Global Tuberculosis Symposium which was well attended both live and online. Moderated by Professor Frank Cobelens and Professor Moses Joloba, speakers from the various projects discussed topics related to TB. Inspiring lectures were given by Adam Penn-Nicholson (Deputy Director TB Programme, FIND, Switzerland), Professor Anna Mandalakas (Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, USA), Professor Wilber Sabiiti (University of St Andrews, Scotland), Andrew DiNardo (Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, USA), and Grant Theron (Stellenbosch University, South Africa) on the state-of-the-art of TB diagnostics and paediatric tuberculosis.
Additionally, before the official start of the Stool4TB consortium meeting, the project organized a two-day training for laboratory personnel of the project. A team of international experts gave hands-on training on Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) DNA isolation from stool and Mtb-specific PCR to increase microbiologic confirmation using stool in addition to sputum. Petra de Haas, of the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, joined us for an interactive discussion on stool processing methods and the impact of the roll-out of stool diagnostics.
The subsequent two days were filled with discussions, insights and highlights from the past year of the Stool4TB project. Highlights were the first results of the project, which have since been submitted for presentation at the Union World Lung Health conference as well as to the EDCTP forum, which will both take place in Paris later this year. We also discussed the opportunities in the coming year where Stool4TB can make their mark, at conferences, symposia, and eventually, next year’s Stool4TB Annual Meeting.
Before the conference was over, we had all bonded as a team, sharing highlights of the project and discussing challenges and solutions. We very much look forward to next year’s Stool4TB annual meeting.