MCB Professor of Immunology and Pathology Jeffery Cox with Nevan Krogan of UCSF and the Gladstone Institutes and other researchers, utilized mass spectrometry to target 34 Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) proteins inside human cells, enabling them to study 187 interactions between the human and tuberculosis proteins. Their paper, published in Molecular Cellhighlights creating an Mtb-human protein-protein interaction map and identifying a switch between host antiviral and antibacterial responses. 

The team hopes to target human host proteins involved in commonly hijacked cell pathways during the disease state, and develop new therapies that use a single drug to treat multiple pathogens - not only bacterial TB but viral infections and other diseases. 

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Photo Credit: Cell Press