Molecular characterisation of post-tuberculous bronchiectasis

Tuberculosis is a major health problem is Iraq and globally. While treatment of TB, including MDR TB has greatly improved resulting in high rates of clinical cure, many patients with TB are left with persisting lung disease including airflow obstruction and bronchiectasis. The University of Dundee is ranked as the worlds number 1 research centre for the study of bronchiectasis which affects up to 40% of TB survivors. In this study the student will investigate the lungs of patients with post-TB bronchiectasis to answer the following clinically relevant questions 1) What is the inflammatory endotype of patients with post-TB bronchiectasis and how does this compare to classical "idiopathic" bronchiectasis 2) What the natural history of post-TB bronchiectasis compared to idiopathic bronchiectasis. What is the microbiology of post-TB bronchiectasis. These questions will be addressed by examined neutrophil function using isolation of cells from whole blood, microbiome sequencing using 16s rRNA sequencing and analysis of pre-existing databases of clinical data.

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