Core--Animal and Infection

Tuberculosis remains a major public health burden. With the emergence of multi-drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and the sustained HIV epidemic worldwide, the threat of tuberculous infection can be expected to continue for quite some time. Clearly, effective ant-ituberculosis intervention is urgently needed. The goal of this Program Project is to design safe and efficacious anti-tuberculous vaccines. For such an endeavor, animal experimentation designed to evaluate vaccine safeness and efficacy is indispensable. The goal of Core B is to provide the investigators participating in this Program Project with the infrastructure to carry out animal studies. Specifically, Core B will i) maintain a safe, efficient, and up-to-date biosafey-level 3 containment animal facility;ii) provide assistance in the design of animal experiemnts, in data interpretation, and in the technical aspects of the various aerogenic models of murine experimental tuberculosis;iii) maintenance and breeding of specific transgenic and gene-disrupted mice. We believe a central core facility for animal studies will fulfill important goals of a Program Project: i) to enhance efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and productivity of the individual participating laboratories, and ii)to foster interaction and collaboration among the investigators.