BIRKBECK UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

AFC Winter meeting 2023

6th January 2023

Programme of speakers, associates, affiliations and presented titles

(Speakers indicated in Bold)

Welcome by AFC Chair, Tim McHugh

Session 1: Host session

Introduction from the host institute.

Sanjib Bhakta and Franca Fraternali.

Birkbeck, University of London.

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Guilt by association: Profiling non-coding RNA in Mycobacterium tuberculosis by the company it keeps.

Irene Nobeli, Jennifer Stiens, YenYi Tan, Rosanna Joyce, Kristine Arnvig, Sharon Kendall.

Birkbeck, University of London.

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Carprofen potentiates anti-tuberculosis drugs by interfering with vital cell communication mechanisms.

Liam Martin, Chris Daniel, Kshitij Sinha, V. K. Ramya, Sam Willcocks, Parvinder Kaur, Helen C. Hailes, Sanjib Bhakta.

Birkbeck, University of London.

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Session 2: Selected papers from submitted abstracts

Antigen-specific IgG avidity following vaccination with IV BCG or ID MTBVAC is associated with superior protection from M.tb challenge in non-human primates.

Marco Polo Peralta Álvarez, Stephanie A. Harris, Andrew White, Sally Sharpe, Nacho Aguilo, Carlos Martin, Helen McShane, Rachel Tanner.

University of Oxford.

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Mining the human gut microbiome identifies mycobacterial Darabinan degrading enzymes.

Samuel Benedict, Omar Al-Jourani, Jennifer Ross, Andrew Lovering, Abigail Layton, Elisabeth Lowe, Patrick Moynihan.

University of Birmingham.

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Investigating the importance of CwlM amidase activity in mycobacterial growth and stress response.

Amin Alrajhi, Galina Mukamolova, Russell Wallis, Obolbek Turapov.

University of Leicester.

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Establishment of tuberculosis meningitis mouse model.

Belinda Dagg, Sara Goulding, Mei Mei Ho, Bhagwati Khatri.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

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Session 3 : Selected papers from submitted abstracts

Systemic influenza impairs whole blood control of mycobacteria in a human challenge study.

Claire Broderick, Oliver Powell, Samuel Nichols, Giselle D’Souza, Dominic Habgood-Coote, Zoe Gardener, Emma Bergstrom, Victoria Wright, Christopher Woods, Christopher Chiu, Elizabeth Whittaker, Myrsini Kaforou, Sandra Newton, Michael Levin.

Imperial College London.

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Metabolic incorporation of fluorinated trehalose probes for the detection and visualisation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Collette Guy, James Gott, Geoff West, Chris Furze, Chris de Wolfe, Jesus Angulo, Elizabeth Fullam.

University of Warwick.

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A phase 2A trial of the safety and tolerability of increased dose rifampicin and adjunctive linezolid, with or without aspirin, for HIV-associated tuberculosis meningitis.

Angharad G. Davis, Sean Wasserman, Cari Stek, Mpumi Maxebengula, C. Jason Liang, Graeme Meintjes, Robert J. Wilkinson.

LASER-TMB Study Consortium. The Francis Crick Institute, UCL and University of Cape Town.

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Heterogeneity in the metabolic state of macrophages drives drug tolerance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Vikas Yadav, Ushashi Banerjee, Nitish Malhotra, Nagasuma Chandra, Dany Beste, Aswin Sai Narain Seshasayee, Amit Singh.

Indian Institute of Science and University of Surrey.

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Virtual library screening approaches for the identification of MbtA inhibitors.

Robert C. Liddington, Sanjib Bhakta, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Laurie Anne Bankston-Liddington, Peter C. E. Moody, Federico Brucoli.

University of Leicester

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Mycobacterium abscessus complex: multi-drug resistance in clinical strains, bacteriophages susceptibility testing and potential healthcare transmission.

Giovanni Satta, Rebekah M. Dedrick, Anna Morkowska, Michael Loebinger, Graham F. Hatfull, Timothy D. McHugh.

University College London.

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