Objective Excessive delays in treatment onset limit current tuberculosis (TB) control programs, presenting a major obstacle to the control of the TB epidemic. Increasing case detection, both quantitatively and temporally, is considered a priority, benefiting the patient (reduced morbidity and mortality) and the society (shortened period of infectiousness). These improvements in patient care have a common goal: to reduce transmission and eventually contain the spread of TB within the population. However, assessing reduced transmission of TB proofs to be difficult, as to date molecular tools have not been integrated in mathematical models or in field trials of public health interventions. Therefore, I aim to develop a model that incorporates bacterial genotyping to follow TB transmission within the human host population, hypothesizing that an effective Enhanced-Case-Finding (ECF) method can interrupt TB transmission. Integration of routine epidemiological and genotyping data with bioinformatics and mathematical modelling provides a novel and powerful approach to understand the key determinants of the TB epidemic, such as the Effective Reproductive Number, and predict the dynamics of TB transmission. I have the unique opportunity to position the present proposal as an added-value study that builds on 3-year Cluster Randomized Trial of ECF that I designed, which is about to be launched in The Gambia in 2012. By applying molecular genotyping methods to bacterial isolates collected from both the ECF intervention- and control arm, I will develop a method to measure and model the impact of ECF on the transmission of TB. This will be the first study of its kind in integrating molecular genotyping data in a TB transmission model as applied to a population level interventional study. The identification of significant transmission parameters will be important both for basic TB research and also for health experts that design and evaluate Public Health TB interventions in the future. Fields of science medical and health scienceshealth sciencespublic healthsocial sciencessociologydemographymortalitynatural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriologymedical and health sciencesclinical medicinepneumologytuberculosisnatural sciencesmathematicsapplied mathematicsmathematical model Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-SG-LS7 - Applied life sciences, biotechnology and bioengineering: agricultural, animal, fishery, forestry/food sciences; biotechnology, chemical biology, genetic engineering, synthetic biology, industrial biosciences; environmental biotechnology. Call for proposal ERC-2012-StG_20111109 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-SG - ERC Starting Grant Host institution INSTITUUT VOOR TROPISCHE GENEESKUNDE EU contribution € 1 345 787,20 Address NATIONALESTRAAT 155 2000 ANTWERPEN Belgium See on map Region Vlaams Gewest Prov. Antwerpen Arr. Antwerpen Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Nadine Van Peer (Ms.) Principal investigator Bouke Catherine De Jong (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all INSTITUUT VOOR TROPISCHE GENEESKUNDE Belgium EU contribution € 1 345 787,20 Address NATIONALESTRAAT 155 2000 ANTWERPEN See on map Region Vlaams Gewest Prov. Antwerpen Arr. Antwerpen Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Nadine Van Peer (Ms.) Principal investigator Bouke Catherine De Jong (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data MEDICAL RESEARCH COUNCIL United Kingdom EU contribution € 145 198,80 Address 20 Park Crescent W1B 1AL LONDON See on map Activity type Public bodies (excluding Research Organisations and Secondary or Higher Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Dembo Kanteh (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data