An Integration of Interdisciplinary Translational Research in Anti-TB Drug Discovery: Out of the University Research Laboratories to Combat Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Copyright: © 2013 Bhakta S. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Tuberculosis (TB) is a dreadful infectious disease responsible for approximately two million human deaths and nine million new cases each year causing massive health and economic impact on global development [1]. One third of the world’s population is latently infected by the pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Emergence of total-drug-resistant (TDR)-TB on top of extensively-drug-resistant (XDR) and multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB is undermining the efforts of many major national and international research consortia such as TB-Drug Discovery, UK (www.tbd-uk.org.uk), Antibiotic Action (www.antibiotic-action.com), New Medicines for Tuberculosis (www. nm4tb.org), Open Source Drug Discovery, India (OSDD; www.osdd. net), EuroLAC-TB consortium (www.eurolactb.org) and the Global TB alliance (www.tballiance.org) to resolve this global human health challenge.