About
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Tuberculosis (TB) is alongside HIV the world’s most threatening high-burden infectious disease, with an estimated 9 million cases and 1.5 million deaths per year. It is a critically important disease in Asia, which accounts for 59% of global TB cases.
SPRINT-TB (Singapore Programme of Research Investigating New Approaches to Treatment of Tuberculosis) is focused on creating new improved treatments for TB. It commenced in 2014 and spans areas from mycobacterial target discovery and drug development to clinical trials and treatment delivery. SPRINT-TB is based at National University of Singapore (NUS), with collaborations extending to academic and industry partners in Singapore, Asia, Europe and USA. The programme is overseen by the Scientific Advisory Board.
Programme Lead: Prof. Nicholas Paton SPRINT-TB runs over 30 research projects, which span four sequential bench-to-bedside research themes: Theme 1: Bacterial Target Discovery (Lead: A/Prof. Thomas Dick)
Theme 2: Drug Development (Lead: Prof. Alex Matter) Theme 3: Clinical Trials (Lead: Prof. Nick Paton) Theme 4: Treatment Delivery (Lead: Prof. Nick Paton) |
Programme Aims - Discover new genes essential for dormancy in mycobacteria - Discover new chemically-validated dormancy targets - Discover new clinical candidate compounds with activity against TB - Identify innovations to standard TB drug development process (pre-clinical or clinical) that accelerate or improve the evaluation of new compounds or combination regimens - Evaluate new or re-purposed antibacterial drugs with potential for regimen shortening - Evaluate new or re-purposed immune-modulatory drug with potential for regimen shortening - Identify an effective shorter drug regimen for drug-sensitive TB - Identify improvements to TB treatment delivery systems that improve adherence and/or clinical outcome - Establish an Asian TB trials and clinical research network |
