About the Lab
The aim of Immunology lab is to impart the knowledge of immune system and to promote the awareness about tuberculosis, a life threatening diseases amongst society, and to develop novel compound against Mycobacterium tuberculosis for the human welfare.
World Health Organization (WHO) and International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) launched global project on drug resistance surveillance. After emergence and spread of M. tuberculosis resistant strains to multiple drugs represent a threat for global tuberculosis control. WHO estimates that 50 million cases of M. tuberculosis is multi-drug resistant to Isoniazid and Rifampin and 4th report of WHO, 2008 showed that highest proportion of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is in Central Asia. In India, data for MDR-TB is under sub-national level survey which already showed resistance to first-line anti-tubercular drugs and has 99000 MDR-TB cases. WHO also reports that India and China carry approximately 50% global burden of MDR-TB due to inconsistent or partial treatment which led to the development of multi-drug resistant strain of M. tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Drug resistance in bacteria and tremendous increase in infectious diseases throughout the world proves our inadequacy to cope up with the problem. Thus, Immunology lab is concerned in search of unexplored microbial diversity capable of producing anti-tubercular metabolites/ novel antibiotics to overcome drugs resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).