UCL launch WHO Collaborating Centre in TB

The UK's first WHO Collaborating Centre for TB Research and Innovation, headed by Dr Lele Rangaka, will serve to facilitate research initiatives and collaborations with the WHO on TB, TB-associated multimorbidity, pandemic preparedness, and vaccine development and readiness. The CC will be enabled by its affiliation with UCL-TB.

Designation of UCL as a WHO Collaborating Centre (CC) on TB research and innovations provides an opportunity to further share its unique expertise, methods, lessons learned and challenges with public health policy makers, beneficiaries and providers in Member States in the WHO European Region. The workplan devised for the WHO Collaborating Centre on TB research and innovations accounts for technical inputs to (a) scale up of TB preventive treatment for persons at high risk, and (b) to develop and strengthen capacity within TB programmes. 

The CC aims to:

• To support WHO in the implementation of WHO programmes and activities at country level 

• To support global policy development and facilitation of global TB research to generate new evidence 
• Implement research to scale up TB preventive treatment, including for contacts of people diagnosed with DR-TB.  
• Support Country capacity building and human resource development on diagnostic research for TB national counterparts and TB communities. 

The designation will last four years until March 2027.

There will be a hybrid launch event held on the 16^th June from 10:30 – 12:30 with refreshments served from 10:00 in the Maplethorpe Lecture Theatre, UCL School of Pharmacy.

“This landmark achievement is an incredible opportunity to accelerate UCL’s involvement in policy changing research in tuberculosis that benefits people in the region and globally. I am humbled by the honour to lead this initiative that will support WHO to increase the uptake of the latest WHO recommendations on TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care towards improved outcomes for people in the region and beyond,” said Dr Lele Rangaka.

Prof Ibrahim Abubakar, Dean of the Faculty of Population Health Sciences spoke about the significant designation. “To accelerate progress towards reaching ambitious targets for TB elimination will require significant joint efforts from stakeholders including universities as key partners. University College London is proud to be a WHO partner and will use its position as a world-leading research institution to ensure the goals of the TB Action Plan for the WHO European Region 2023–2030 and the renewed WHO Director-General’s Flagship Initiative on TB are achieved. The urgency for immediate action is highlighted by ongoing challenges in TB care delivery, supply chains and other programme activities as a result of the pandemic and current humanitarian crises” said Prof Abubakar.

Links

• UCL Collaborating Centre on TB webpage
• Dr Lele Rangaka MRC Clinical Trials Unit Profile
• UCL-TB webpage 
• Tuberculosis at WHO Euro