SPRINT-TB News and Programme Updates
Keep up with the newest announcements, research milestones and press coverage from the SPRINT-TB programme, covering target discovery, drug development, clinical trials and treatment delivery.
Research Themes
- Theme 1: Target Discovery
- Theme 2: Drug Development
- Theme 3: Clinical Trials
- Theme 4: Treatment Delivery
Discover more of the programme through our research overview, look through upcoming events, take part in the journal club, or learn about the annual symposium.
Latest Announcements
4th Annual SPRINT-TB Symposium Date Confirmed
The 4th Annual SPRINT-TB Symposium, which gathers local and international experts in TB research and clinical care, will be held at the National University of Singapore on Thursday 15 November 2018. Complete details and registration can be found on the symposium website at tuberculosis.sg.
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TRUNCATE-TB Trial Featured in WHO Policy Paper
In November 2017 the TRUNCATE-TB trial was cited in “Global Investments in Tuberculosis Research and Development: Past, Present, and Future”, a policy paper drafted for the first WHO Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Tuberculosis in the Sustainable Development Era, held in Moscow, Russia. The paper can be accessed through the WHO IRIS repository.
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SPRINT-TB Releases Annual Report 2016/2017
SPRINT-TB has published its Annual Report 2016/2017, the first in a series designed to keep the scientific and broader community up to date on the programme's work, news and discoveries. The programme formally launched in July 2014 and within just over a year generated a range of research findings and achievements. First-year highlights include Theme 1 uncovering potent activity of bortezomib against a new M. tuberculosis target; Theme 2 starting work on bortezomib derivatives that may kill bacteria more selectively with minimal toxicity; Theme 3 setting up a human testing platform, the whole blood bactericidal activity assay, adapted to test both antibacterial drugs and those modifying the host immune response; and Theme 4 building a TB health services research collaboration with Cambodia's national TB programme and opening the SPRINT-TB office in Phnom Penh.
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SPRINT-TB Tests App for Monitoring Treatment Adherence
The MIST Project Team comprises Ms. Pangyan (NUH), Mr. Lim Teck Sin (I3 Precision Pte Ltd), Prof. Nicholas Paton (NUHS), Dr. James Molton (NUH), A/Prof. Wei Tsang Ooi (NUS), Mr. Modukuru Naga Kishore (NHIC) and Mr. Jianan Wang (I3 Precision). Patient compliance is essential to successful TB treatment yet difficult to sustain over the full six-month course. The current approach, Directly Observed Therapy (DOT), requires patients to visit a clinic daily and take medication while a healthcare worker watches, which can be inconvenient and costly for patients and demanding on national TB control programme resources. As a patient-centred alternative, SPRINT-TB Theme 4 developed MIST (Mobile Interactive Supervised Therapy), a smartphone-based supervision platform that supports adherence by letting patients submit videos of themselves taking their pills, removing the need to visit a DOT clinic in person. MIST was tested with healthy volunteers and found acceptable and effective in supporting pill-taking adherence, as published in BMJ Open in December 2016. The study will expand to countries in the region to test the approach in TB patients.
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SPRINT-TB Projects Included in TB Drug Pipeline Report
In August 2016 selected SPRINT-TB drug development projects were added to the TB Drug Pipeline report maintained by the Working Group on New TB Drugs. The Working Group on New Drugs (WGND) is one of the Stop TB Partnership's seven Working Groups, a network of experts committed to accelerating effective and affordable new TB therapies. WGND offers a forum for global collaboration and joint projects on new TB drugs and encourages coordination among all stakeholders. The pipeline can be viewed at newtbdrugs.org.
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SPRINT-TB Featured in the Straits Times on World TB Day
World Tuberculosis Day is observed globally every 24 March. This year the Straits Times marked the occasion with an article by Assistant Professor Mishal S. Khan, lead of SPRINT-TB Theme 4. Dr. Khan described TB incidence worldwide, noted the rise of multi-drug resistant TB and explained Singapore's unique position to lead TB efforts in Asia, where nearly 60% of the world's TB cases occur. Read the full article, “Singapore in a prime position to lead fight against tuberculosis”, in the Straits Times.
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SPRINT-TB Profiled in Medicine
SPRINT-TB was featured in this month's issue of Medicine, a publication of the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Read the feature “Running Against Resistance: the SPRINT-TB Research Programme” in Issue 17, Feb 2016.
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SPRINT-TB Publishes Its First Annual Report
SPRINT-TB has released its Annual Report 2015, the first in a series the programme will publish each year to inform the scientific and wider community of its activities, news and discoveries. The programme formally launched in July 2014 and within just over a year generated a range of research findings and achievements. First-year highlights include Theme 1 uncovering potent activity of bortezomib against a new M. tuberculosis target; Theme 2 starting work on bortezomib derivatives that may kill bacteria more selectively with minimal toxicity; Theme 3 setting up a human testing platform, the whole blood bactericidal activity assay, adapted to test both antibacterial drugs and those modifying the host immune response; and Theme 4 building a TB health services research collaboration with Cambodia's national TB programme and opening the SPRINT-TB office in Phnom Penh.
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Singapore Ranks Among Top Global TB Research Funders
In the 2015 Report on Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends, released in November 2015 by TAG (Treatment Action Group), Singapore was reported to have spent more on TB R&D in 2014 as a percentage of GDP than any other country or economy. Appearing in the report for the first time, Singapore gave USD 8.1 million to TB research in 2014, ranking above much larger countries and economies including France, Switzerland, Australia and Canada. The full reported amount was awarded to SPRINT-TB, a TB research programme based at the National University of Singapore. The report notes this can make a meaningful difference to TB R&D: given the small global funding base, an organisation need only allocate more than USD 12 million per year to rank among the top 10 funders. Singapore therefore has strong potential to take a worldwide leadership position in TB R&D with SPRINT-TB as its flagship programme. TAG is an independent non-profit think tank of science-based treatment activists based in New York City, USA, supporting research to end tuberculosis epidemics. The Report on Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends, funded by the Stop TB Partnership, is published annually at the Union World Conference on Lung Health. See the TAG report.
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New Clinical Research Imaging Centre Strengthens TB Research
A newly opened A*STAR-NUS clinical research imaging centre is boosting TB research capacity. Coverage is available from Channel NewsAsia and TODAY.
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From symposium dates and WHO policy citations to annual reports and media features, this page collects the programme's key announcements in one place. Use the archive links to move through earlier updates, or follow the research theme pages to see how each strand of SPRINT-TB work fits together.