“All presentations had a very high quality and covered an impressive range of different approaches. We had presentations covering everything from the host response investigating gene expression of host genes, identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis signatures to an engineer showcasing his work with developing an immunosensing system,” says Prof Hazel Dockrell, TriageTB Capacity Development Lead, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).  

COVID-19 has posed several logistical and administrative challenges to the TriageTB consortium. As the group successfully navigated the fast-changing pandemic reality, mitigating the immediate impact on clinical activities took center stage.

“The student presentation sessions have given us a sense of the science that is part of, and linked to, the consortium in this interim period when we are still largely focused on management issues such as recruitment and testing. As such, the sessions helped put a capacity building focus back into the research and the science, which is of course central in TriageTB,” says Prof Dockrell.

Large interest in presenting at the event

TriageTB builds on research conducted in two previous EDCTP-funded studies, AE-TBC and ScreenTB. Over the course of these two projects, several student presentation sessions were arranged as side-events during in-person consortium meetings. By shifting to online, TriageTB’s sessions were opened up to more students, also those who would not otherwise have been able to travel.

“As this was the first time that we organized the presentation session in this format, we were not sure how many students would want to participate. We were pleased and delighted that so many people wanted to give a talk,” says Prof Dockrell.

"This experience taught me how to prepare a presentation for an audience not familiar with my work as well as gave me the opportunity to share my research with my peers. I enjoyed learning about different research projects from around the world and gaining valuable feedback from experts in the field," says Kala Early, Research Assistant at the Infectious Disease Research Center at Colorado State University and part of the ENDxTB consortium.

After the first events, more students have expressed an interest in presenting their work, and the TriageTB capacity building team is currently planning a third session in the autumn.

“I was glad to see so many members of the TriageTB and ENDxTB consortia connecting to the first two sessions and hope that even more people will attend potential future sessions. The presentations sparked a lot of thoughts about our current study and what research results we can expect to see in the future,” says Prof Dockrell.

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