Over the past year, the institute has consolidated its research efforts towards developing shorter, more effective regimens for both drug-sensitive and drug resistant pulmonary tuberculosis.

The Clinical Research division launched a Phase 3 randomized TB preventive vaccine clinical trial under the guidance of ICMR, New Delhi. Eligible household contacts of newly diagnosed pulmonary TB patients are enrolled and vaccinated with one of the two new TB vaccine namely VPM1002 or MIP. Clinic also launched two new randomized drug trials to determine the effect of increased dosing of rifampicin and host-directed therapy of metformin when given daily along with first-line anti-tuberculosis drugs. The department also launched two trials for drug resistant TB using shorter MDR regimen (STREAM and BEAT studies). The institute thus continues its quest for better treatment options for all forms of TB and will pursue the investigation of new drugs as they become available.

Research is also ongoing for the management of minimal pediatric TB, TB meningitis in children, pediatric contact follow-up of MDR TB patients and pulmonary non-tuberculous mycobacteria. The clinical division has ongoing collaboration with the Tamil Nadu state government medical colleges, TANSACS and Corporation of Chennai. Patients attending these centers are screened and enrolled into clinical studies, and faculty from these centers are included as co-investigators.

The Department of Epidemiology is involved with various prevalence surveys for TB. Earlier they were conducted in Tiruvallur district and have been completed in Chennai city as well. The department is also conducting TB prevalence surveys among homeless persons and in prisons in Chennai. A nation-wide TB prevalence survey initiated in 2019 is ongoing, targeting 5,00,000 individuals from 625 clusters using mobile vans equipped with x-ray machines and CBNAAT.

The Department of Statistics supports clinical and basic science research activities, handling data management and also conducting studies in modeling, survival analysis, and geospatial mapping. Currently, it is working on estimating the burden of TB in India.

The Socio-behavioral Research Division conducted targeted interventions to strengthen TB control among tribal populations (TIE-TB project), evaluated the 99DOTS strategy, and studied MERM adherence monitoring for MDR-TB. They are also exploring community-based TB control including engaging school students as TB ambassadors.

The Department of Bacteriology continues as a Supranational and National Reference Laboratory. A patent (No. 269659) has been granted for Phage lysin purification for enhanced diagnostics. Ongoing projects include bioprocessing “transitmycin”, validation of ‘TB-detect’ and ‘TrueNAT’, genome sequencing, host-directed therapy studies, and medicinal plant screening. Lab automation has also been implemented.