We are excited to share a report on the recent 9th Annual Tuberculosis Symposium “The Future of TB Research” held on April 24, 2025, at the University of Washington in Seattle. In this annual symposium, researchers showcased their work supported by the SEATRAC (Seattle Tuberculosis Research Advancement Center) comprising an amazing variety of topics ranging from the analysis of the phosphoproteome of patient’s macrophages, the study of tuberculosis cases in Washington State to the chemistry of novel molecules targeting Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb).
Dr. Christina Stallings from Washington University (WashU, St. Louis, MO) was the invited Keynote Speaker and gave a terrific presentation describing the complexity of the host response to Mtb infection and in particular the role of neutrophils and NETosis in the control of tuberculosis. Dr. Alexandre Gouzy, an early-stage investigator supported by the NYC-TRAC, was invited to participate to this symposium. The evening before the symposium, Dr. Gouzy had the opportunity to meet and exchange with Dr. Sherman and Dr. Parish who are among the leaders of the SEATRAC, the keynote speaker Dr. Stallings as well as Dr. Maciag and Himmelfarb who organized the symposium, in a lovely seafood restaurant by the lake Union. Dr. Gouzy was then given the opportunity to present his work on “Pyrazinamide’s mode of action and resistance” and shared how he can detect pyrazinamide’s antimicrobial activity in vitro using a lipid-rich and acidic growth model recapitulating better the infection setting than standard culture media. Dr. Gouzy also presented his work in collaboration with the Rock lab (Rockefeller University, NY) on the identification of a novel pyrazinamide’s resistance determinant.
Picture at the dinner before the symposium. From left to right: Dr. Alexandre Gouzy, Dr. Christina Stallings (the keynote speaker), Dr. Tanya Parish (Co-lead of the SEATRAC), Dr. Talia Himmelfarb. (Organizer of the symposium), and Dr. Karolina Maciag (Organizer of the symposium)