John D. McKinney, Global Health Institute, School of Life Sciences, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), provides an overview of the natural history of TB infection and the global impact of TB on human health.
"All pathogens must acquire and assimilate nutrients from their hosts in order to grow and multiply -- our tissues are literally their food -- yet surprisingly little is known about this fundamental aspect of the pathogenic lifestyle. Accumulating evidence suggests that M. tuberculosis might utilize fatty acids as its principal carbon and energy source during infection. The fourth part of this lecture describes work in our laboratory that is focused on identifying the metabolic pathways that are essential for growth and persistence of M. tuberculosis in vivo."
