SDSU Researcher Works to Combat Drug Resistance

The work is being conducted under a five-year, $3.1 million grant to Valafar from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the DNA and gene expression of tuberculosis, while developing ways to identify resistant bacteria and predict the success of treatment. It follows $3 million of initial funding from NIH in 2013. The lab’s work is urgently important for millions of people suffering from the disease. In 2016, 1.7 million people died from tuberculosis, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and incidents of drug resistance are on the rise, especially in impoverished countries.