The mission of the TRAC is to pool the expertise and resources of an outstanding team of senior tuberculosis (TB) investigators at the three institutions in order to expand the number of investigators in the field of TB research and to promote innovative multidisciplinary TB research.
The Tri-Institutional Tuberculosis Research Unit (Tri-I TBRU) successfully hosted its annual meeting on June 5, 2024, at Rockefeller Research Labs. The Tri-I TBRU is a collaboration between Weill Cornell, Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center which focuses on improving understanding of the persistence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in humans during drug treatment and latency.
On April 30, The NYC-TRAC hosted Dr. Susan Dorman, Professor of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, who has co-authored national guidelines for management of TB and leads a research team that focuses on development of new TB diagnostics and treatments. Dr. Dorman gave a talk entitled "The TB Treatment Landscape: 2024," which provided a comprehensive update on TB research and its promising future.
On April 1, we had the pleasure of hosting Maria Smilios, author of the book titled "The Black Angels: The Untold Story of The Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis." This book sheds light on the contributions of Black nurses at Sea View Hospital in Staten Island, New York, from the early 1900s through World War II until the 1960s. Despite facing discrimination, these nurses provided compassionate care to thousands of people with tuberculosis (TB) over decades and participated in drug trials that ultimately led to the successful treatment and cure of the disease.
