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Research in the Behr lab that employs bacterial geneticÌýmethods to study the epidemiology andÌýpathogenesis of mycobacterial diseases. Our work has been cited ~ 25,000 times with an h-indexÌýof 80. Highlights include the following:

1. Mycobacterium tuberculosis evolution. We used microarrays to define the micro-evolutionÌýof the M. tuberculosis complex (MTC) (Mostowy et al, JID, 2002) and M. bovis BCGÌývaccines (Mostowy et al, Vaccine, 2003). WeÌýthen described the macro-evolution of M.Ìýtuberculosis from non-tuberculous mycobacteriaÌý(Veyrier, BMC Evolutionary Biology,Ìý2009), such as M. kansasii (Wang, Genome Biology and Evolution, 2015).Ìý To reorient TBÌýresearch, we imputed the ancestor of the M. tuberculosis complex (called MTBC 0 ) and sharedÌýthis sequence through Tuberculist as the new ‘North Star’ for TB research (Harrison,ÌýMicrobial Genomics, 2024).
2. Mycobacterium avium. Using multi-locus sequence analysis, we derived a phylogeny ofÌýM.Ìýavium, revealing a mix of environmental organisms and pathogenic clones (Turenne etÌýal,ÌýJ. Bacteriology, 2008). This enabled us to identify horizontal gene transferÌýevents thatÌýdefine the pathogen M. avium paratuberculosis (Alexander et al, J.ÌýBacteriology, 2009). OurÌýappreciation of the species was captured in aÌýcomprehensive review (Turenne et al, ClinÌýMicro Reviews, 2007) andÌýserved as the basis for editing two reference textbooks onÌýParatuberculosis (2010, 2020).
3. NOD2 and mycobacterial infection. We showed that NOD2 mediates innate andÌýadaptiveÌýimmune responses to mycobacterial infection (Divangahi et al, J. Immunology,
   2008).ÌýThen, using a ‘genetics squared’ approach, we showed that NOD2-dependentÌýimmuneÌýrecognition is tuned to the modified mycobacterial peptidoglycan, where theÌýC2Ìýposition of muramic acid has an unusual N-glycolyl group instead of the typical N-acetylÌýmoiety (Coulombe et al, J. Exp Med, 2009). N-glycolyl MDP is now commercially availableÌýthrough InvivoGen as an immunologic reagent.
4. Tuberculosis molecular epidemiology. Using bacterial genotyping, our group has evaluatedÌýTB transmission over space and time. We tracked TB within a village that suffered a TBÌýsurge (Lee et al, JID, 2015) and characterized the evolution of that founder strain (Lee et al,ÌýPNAS, 2015). We demonstrated the importance of reinfection after treatment in South AfricaÌý(Verver, Am J Resp Crit Care Med, 2005). Our work showed thatÌýM. orygis (notÌýM. bovis) isÌýthe cause of zoonotic TB in India (Duffy et al, Lancet Microbe, 2020), resulting in anÌýupdated WHO definition (). TheseÌýgenomicÌýepidemiologyÌýstudies,Ìýcomplemented by historic literature, reinforced the importance of fastÌýdisease after infection (Behr et al, BMJ, 2018; BMJ, 2019) and led to the WHO changing its guidance on the global burden of M. tuberculosis infection ().Ìý
   
   (updated JuneÌý2024)