AFC Summer 2001

Held at Newcastle University

July 2001

Newcastle Mini symposium

New antimycobacterial agents, related to thiolactomycin
David E. Minnikin

Galactan biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Identification of a bifunctional UDP-galactofuranosyltransferase
Lynn Dover

Biochemical characterisation of acyl carrier protein (AcpM) and  malonyl-CoA:AcpM transacylase (mtFabD), two major components of  Mycobacterium tuberculosis fatty acid synthase II
K. Madhavan Nampoothiri:

Ppm1, a prenol monophospho-mannose synthase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Gurdyal S. Besra

Session 1

Construction  and application of a gene-specific whole genome DNA microarray for M. tuberculosis
J Hinds¹, JA Mangan¹, KG Laing¹, H Al-Ghusein¹, NG Stoker², JK Vass³, RS Buxton⁴, MJ Colston⁴, PD Butcher¹. ¹St George’s Hospital Medical School, London. ²London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London. ³Beatson Institute, Glasgow. ⁴NIMR, Mill Hill, London

Molecular investigation of the role the 34 kDa protein plays in the virulence of M. a. partatuberculosis
Darragh Heaslip, Karen Stevenson, Johnjoe McFadden* and J Michael Sharp.  Moredun Research Institute and *University of Surrey

The molecular analysis of Mycobacterium bovis (MTB) DNA from a family of 18th Century Hungarians
Fletcher HA, Donoghue HD, Taylor  GM, van der Zander AGM and Spigelman M. Department of Medical Microbiology, UCL

Session 2

Inositol metabolism in mycobacteria: Genetic and structural studies
Neil Stoker and Farah Movahedzadeh, LSHTM

CD4+ and CD8+ T cells kill intracellular M. tuberculosis by a perforin and FAS/FASL independent mechanism
DH Canaday*, RJ Wilkinson¹*, Q Li*, CV Harding¹, RF Silver*, WH Boom*. ¹Wellcome Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine, Imperial College School of Medicine, London.  *Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pathology, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland, Ohio.

What is the function of OmpATb, a pore-forming protein of M. tuberculosis?
Philip Draper, Catherine Raynaud, Jo Colston and Richard Speight (NIMR, Mill Hill)

Session 3

What is Mycobacterium microti? Analysis of genomic variation using microarrays
C Cunha Frota, M J Colston, L Rickman, D Hunt R Buxton, NIMR, Mill Hill.  P Butcher, J Hinds St George’s Medical School, London.  D Van Soolingen, RIVM, Bilthoven, The Netherlands

A family of autocrine growth factors in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
GV Mukamolova, OA Turapov, DI Young, SL Hardy, AS Kaprelyants, DB Kell, M Young.  Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Wales, Aberystwyth

How does M. tuberculosis ensure efficient transcription of ribosomal RNA?
Kristine Arnvig, B. Gopal, R A Cox, K G Papavinasasundaram, M J Colston. NIMR, Mill Hill, London

A large outbreak of tuberculosis in a Leicester school
D. Modha, P Monk, L Coole, G Bryant.  Dept of Public Health, Leicestershire Health Authority

AFC Winter 2001

Held at The Royal Free Hospital, London

January 12^th 2001

Scientific Programme

Session 1

The Molecular Epidemiology of TB in London 1995-1997
Tim McHugh, Royal Free Hospital, on behalf of the Principal Investigators of the London TB study Group

Effect of BCG vaccination on IFN? responses to mycobacterial antigens in UK schoolchildren as
compared to Malawian young adults : a potential correlate of vaccine–induced protective
immunity ?
R.E. Weir¹, G. F. Black^1,2, P.E.M. Fine¹ and H.M. Dockrell¹. ¹Dept of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, LSH&TM, Keppel Street, London WC1E 7HT, ²Karonga Prevention Study, PO Box 46, Chilumba, Malawi

Effect of oxygen availability on the physiology and pathogenicity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Brian James and Philip Marsh, CAMR, Salisbury

Environmental survival of mycobacteria
Stephanie Taylor, Frans de Leij, Jeremy Dale, Molecular Microbiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Surrey

The search for environmental mycobacteria in Karonga district, northern Malawi
Ben Chilima, Paul Fine and Penny Hirsch. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; IACR-
Rothamsted

The effect of stimulation of antigen presentation on M. tuberculosis infection
Stephen Jolles, Gerry Klaus, Ricardo Tascon and Jo Colston, The National Institute for Medical Research, London

Session 2

Deciphering the code of a mycobacterial enigma: understanding physiology from the
Mycobacterium leprae genome
P. Wheeler¹ and ST Cole². ¹TB Research Group, VLA Weybridge, ²Institut Pasteur, France

ATP-mediated killing of intracellular mycobacteria by macrophages is a P2X7-dependent process
inducing bacterial death by phagosome-lysosome fusion
Ian P. Fairbairn, David A. Lammas, Carmel B. Stober, Dinakantha S. Kumararatne. MRC Centre for Immune Regulation, Birmingham Medical School, Birmingham University

Genomic mutations and IS6110 in M. tuberculosis: Man as a model system?
Hasan Yesilkya, Jeremy Dale, Ken Forbes Medical Microbiology, Aberdeen University and Molecular
Microbiology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Surrey

Mycobacteria and the control of blood flow
Gerard Stansby, Christoph Berwanger, Yiu Che Chan and John Stanford. Department of Vascular Surgery, University of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Department of Medical Microbiology, RFUCMS, London

Widespread Occurrence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis-DNA from 18th-19th Century Hungarians
Helen Fletcher¹, Helen D. Donoghue¹, John Holton¹, Ildicó Pap² and Mark Spigelman¹, ¹Department of Medical Microbiology, University College London, London W1P 6DB, UK; ²Anthropology Department, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Ludovika tér 2, Budapest, Hungary H-1083

AFC Summer 2000

Held at The John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford

July 9th 2000

Scientific Programme

Session 1

A mechanism for CD8+ T cell mediated suppression of intracellular mycobacterial growth
R Brookes, H McShane, N Goonetilleke, A Lalvani, AA Psthan, DA Price, GM Griffiths & A Hill.  Oxford University

OmpATb – a pore-forming protein of M. tuberculosis and how it may be regulated
R Speight & P Draper. NIMR

An increase in expression of a M. tuberculosis mycolyl transferase gene (fbpB) occurs early after infection of human monocytes
RJ Wilkinson¹²³, LE DesJardin², BM Gibson², KA Wilkinson¹, D Poleman¹, RA Kanost¹, KD Eisenach², Z Toossi².  ¹Division of Infectious Diseases, Case Western Reseve University, Cleveland, Medical Research Service. ²JL McClellan Memorial Veterans’ Administration Hospital, Little Rock. ³Wellcome Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine, Imperial College of Medicine, Northwick Park Hospital

Genetic Transformation of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis
S Thorne & JJ McFadden.  University of Surrey

Role of heat shock proteins in inflammation: M. tuberculosis chaperonin 60.1 (hsp60) is a more potent cytokine-stimulator than chaperonin 60.2 (hsp65) and contains a cryptic CD14-binding domain
JC Lewthwaite, ARM Coates, S Kahn, M Singh, P Mascagni, S Poole, M Roberts & B Henderson.  Eastman Dental Institute and St George’s Hospital Medical School

The use of recombinant viruses as tuberculosis vaccines
N Goonetilleke, R Anderson, H McShane, S Gilbert, R Brookes & A Hill.  Oxford University

Session 2

Crystal Structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Chaperonin 10
M Roberts, AR Coker, ARM Coates and SP Wood.  St George’s Hospital Medical School and Southampton University

Growth control and dormancy in Mycobacterium smegmatis
R Wright, J Dickinson, S Thorne, M Bushell & JJ McFadden.  University of Surrey

Protection against tuberculosis in a prime-boost regime is mediated by one CD4+ and one CD8+ T cell epitope
H McShane, S Behboudi, N Goonetilleke, S Gilbert, R Brookes & A Hill.  Oxford University

Comparative studies of defined skin test antigens in M. bovis infected guinea pigs and cattle
AO Whelan, HM Vordermeier & RG Hewinson.  VLA Weybridge

Stressed up, Messed up: De-regulation of HSP70 response in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
G Stewart, V Snewin, P Tormay, P O’Goara, M Goyal, I Brown & DB Young.  Imperial College of Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital

AFC Winter 2000

January 7th 2000

Scientific Programme

Session 1

Shedding light on immunity to mycobacteria
VA Snewin, DJ Turner, M-P Gares and DB Young

Rapid detection of M. tuberculosis infection by enumeration of antigen specific T cells.
Ajit Lalvani, Ansar A Pathan, Helen McShane, Robert J Wilkinson, Mohammed Latif,
Christopher P Conlon, Geoffrey Pasvol & Adrian VS Hill

Generation of mycobacterial mutants using plasmid incompatibility
C. Pashley, RA McAdam, K Duncan, T Parish, NG Stoker

Do chemokines differ in skin lesions across the leprosy spectrum?
AA Kirkaldy, S Khanolkhar-Young, S Suneetha & D Lockwood

The Biology of Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance
Stephen H Gillespie , Owen Billington, Timothy D McHugh

Session 2

Plasmid Transfer from Streptomyces to Mycobacteria smegmatis
Apoorva Bhatt and Tobias Kieser

Differential Trafficking of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis 19 kDa antigen and access to the MHC Class I processing Pathway
Olivier Neyrolles, Marie-Pierre Gares, Keith Gould, Sara Brett, Peadar O’Gaora, Marie-Christine Prevost, Emmanuelle Perret, Riny Janssen, Jelle Thole & Douglas Young

Pre-BCG Immune Responses to Mycobacterial Antigens in a Malawian Population
Gill Black

Demonstration of adherence of mycobacteria to a human respiratory tissue organ culture by electron microscopy
AM Middleton, MV Chadwick, AJ Nicholson, A Dewar, R Wilson

The study of environmentally regulated genes in mycobacteria species using bioluminescence
Jamila Shafi, Peter Andrew, Kenneth Duncan & Ruth McAdam

Examination of clinical and archaeological material using PCR primers that can detect low levels of Mycobacterium leprae DNA
Helen D Donoghue, John M Holton and Mark Spigelman

 

AFC Winter 1998

Held at the National Institute for Medical Research, London

January 8th 1998

Scientific Programme

Session 1

Interactions between mycobacteria and macrophages: changes in expression of genes in oxidative metabolism and apoptosis
Ragno S, Jenner P and Colston MJ. The National Institute of Medical Research, London

Mycobacterial mutants defective in oxygen-limited stationary phase survival
Keer JT and Williams HD. Imperial College, London

Dormancy and Social resuscitation- the identification of a molecular wake-up call
Kell DB, Mukamolova G, Kaprelyants A , Danielle Young and Mike Young. University of Aberystwyth

The strengths and weaknesses of 16S rRNA sequencing in mycobacterial systematics
Goodfellow M, Magee JG, Ward AC and Mhen H-S. University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and PHLS Newcastle

Molecular fingerprinting: the Mycobacterium malmoense story, so far
Magee JG, Shojaei H, Freeman R and Goodfellow M. PHLS Newcastle and University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Regulation of mycobacterial promoters
McBride AJA, Eales L-J, Dale JW and McFadden JJ. University of Surrey

Vaccinia expression of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Antigen 85 and ESAT-6 secreted proteins: tissue plasminogen activator signal sequence enhances expression and immunogenicity
Malin AS, Huygen K, Content J, Mackett M, Brandt L, Andersen P and Dockrell HM. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Session 2

Chemokine networks in pulmonary tuberculosis
Friedland J. Imperial College School of Medicine at Hammersmith, London

Investigation of human immunity to tuberculosis: development of a whole blood killing assay
Kampmann B, Ó Goara P, Snewin V, Levin M and Douglas Young, Imperial College School of Medicine at St Mary’s, London

The first clinical study of rifapentine/isoniazid in continuation phase treatment, carried out in Hong Kong
Mitchison DA, Tam CM, Chan SL, Lam CW, Leung CC, Kam KM and Norris JS. St Georges Hospital Medical School, London

Two unusual patients with asthma requiring treatment with steroids, and chronic pulmonary infection with M. xenopi. The clinical and immunological outcomes following immunotherapy
Thapa N, Stanford J. University College London Medical School

Characteristics of protective T cells after DNA vaccination or tuberculosis infection in mice
Lowrie DB. The National Institute of Medical Research, London

AFC Summer 1997

Held at the Sanger Centre, Cambridge

July 17th-18th 1997

Scientific Programme

Session 1
The involvement of the Wellcome Trust in bacterial genome sequencing
John Stephenson. Wellcome Trust

Sequencing of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome
Bart Barrell. Sanger Centre

Analysis of mycobacterial genomes
Stewart Cole. Institut Pasteur, Paris

Use of whole genome sequence of Haemophilus influenzae to investigate the biology of LPS
Richard Moxon. IMM, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford

Session 2

From genomics to targets and vaccines
Ken Duncan. Glaxo Wellcome, Stevenage

Comparative genome sequencing the pstS operon of Mycobacterium intracellulare, M.leprae and M.tuberculosis
Harry Thangaraj. RPMS, Hammersmith, London

A genome-wide search for genes involved in host susceptibility to human tuberculosis
R Bellamy et al. WellcomeTrust for Human Genomics, Oxford ; MRC, Gambia

Glycosyltransferases in mycobacteria: polyprenol-phosphomannose biosynthesis as an entry point
Paul R Wheeler. LSHTM, London

Use of yeast genome information
Johannes Hegemann. Justus-Liebig-Univ., Giessen, Germany

Session 3

Mycobacterial systematics: strengths and weaknesses of 16S rRNA sequencing
John Magee & Mike Goodfellow. PHLS, Newcastle upon Tyne

A porin-like gene of M. tuberculosis
R Senaratne et al. NIMR, London

Proteome analysis of microbial pathogens: applications and challenges
David O’Connor. Southampton University

Workshop 1: Bioinformatics

Lead Speaker: To be arranged

Antibiotic resistance: efflux genes in M. tuberculosis
Marian Blokpoel. Imperial College, London

Identification of MPT53, a novel secreted antigen of M. tuberculosis
Steve Michell. CVL, Weybridge

Finding families for orphan genes
Mark Pallen. Imperial College, London

Identification of potentially glycosylated mycobacterial lipoproteins
R Delahay. Imperial College, London

The WHO synthetic peptide initiative for new leprosy skin test reagents- the use of bioinformatics
To be arranged

Open discussion and short informal presentations

Workshop 2: Gene Function

Lead Speaker: Douglas Young. Imperial College, London

A novel approach to the trapping of activated promoters; promoter self-amplification
G Bachrach. NIMR, London

Upregulation of the M. tuberculosis haemoglobin-like hmp gene mRNA during entry into dormancy
A Coates. St Georges, London

Proteome maps from M. tuberculosis during infection
PD Butcher. St Georges, London

Open discussion and short informal presentations

Plenary session

Report back and discussion Panel
Jo Colston (chair), John Stephenson, Neil Stoker, Jeremy Dale, Douglas Young

Summary
Jo Colston

AFC Winter 1997

Held at The Royal London Hospital

January 31st 1997

Scientific Programme

Session 1

Clinical problems of tuberculosis control in East London
Bothamley, G. and Cotton, M. Homerton Hospital

The molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis in HIV positive and negative populations in Northern Tanzania
Gillespie, S.M., Ramsay,A.R.C., Uiso, L., Ironogo, C.H, Ipuge, M.H, Dickens, A., Newport, L.E. and McHugh, T.D. Royal Free Hospital, Kibongoto TB Hospital, and TB and Leprosy Control Programme, Tanzania

Stationary phase survival in mycobacteria
Williams, H.D. Imperial College, London

Unusual morphology of mycobacteria cultured under microaerobic and anaerobic conditions
Cunningham, A.F. and Spreadbury, C.L. University of Birmingham

T cell responses to a mixture of M. tuberculosis peptides with complementary HLA-DR binding profiles
Jurzevic, S., Wilkinson, R.J., Hills, A., Pasvol, G, Davidson, R.N. and Ivanyi, J. Hammersmith Hospital, and Northwick Park Hospital

A longitudinal study of in vitro cytotoxic T cell and IFNg responses of tuberculosis patients in The Gambia
Turner, J. and Dockrell, H.M. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Session 2

IS6110 evolution in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Forbes, K. and Fang, Z. Aberdeen University

Transposition of IS6110 in Mycobacterium smegmatis
Ghanekar, K., Wall, S., Dale, J. and McFadden, J.J. University of Surrey

Glucocorticoids and acute pulmonary tuberculosis: a clue to pathogenesis
Baker, R.W., Shaw, R.J., Rook, G.A.W., Zumla, A., Lightman, S., Walker, B. and Honour, J.
St. Mary’s Hospital and Middlesex Hospital, University College London, Bristol University and Edinburgh University

Aspects of recA expression in mycobacteria
Davis, E.O., Movahedzadeh, F., Papavinasundaram, K., Thomas, N., Jenner, P.J., Brooks, P.C. and Colston, M.J. National Institute of Medical Research. London

Studies on phage infection in mycobacteria utilising iron compounds to inactivate the macrophage
McNerney, R., Harley, V., Sidu, A., Stupple, A., Tovey, G., Parish, T. and Stoker, N. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Epidemiological surveillance of tuberculosis in East London and The City
O’Sullivan, J. Homerton Hospital