Dr Elizabeth Fullam has been awarded a seed grant of £25k from the Warwick Quantitative Biomedicine Programme (funded through the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund). In a programme open to all Warwick researchers, seed grants are provided through an open, peer reviewed competition to explore quantitative biology in all areas of modern biology. Dr Fullam's project aims to quantify nutrient uptake and metabolism in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and will fund a postdoctoral researcher for 6 months.

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is a major global health problem, with the World Health Organisation reporting 9 million new cases of TB and 1.5 million deaths from TB in 2014 alone. It is estimated that one-third of the world’s population is latently infected with Mtb and Mtb is unique in its ability to be able to survive within the human host for decades.

Currently there is a lack in our understanding of the nutrients that Mtb is able to utilise to survive intracellularly. The aim of this Quantitative Biomedical Seed Grant is to utilise advanced imaging techniques to enable us to understand and quantify these essential nutrient uptake and metabolism processes in this pathogenic organism.

Research Fellow vacancy - apply by 16 February 2016