PHRI created the PHRI TB Center in the early 1990s, at the initiation of its scientist Dr. Barry Kreiswirth, in response to the emerging epidemic of tuberculosis in New York City. The Institute raised over $1 million (major gifts from from Hoffmann LaRoche, Pfizer, and AmFAR) and built a Biosafety Level 3 laboratory that could safely house infectious organisms.

Dr. Kreiswirth used DNA fingerprinting techniques, in part developed and refined in his laboratory, to identify the highly drug-resistant "W" strain of TB as a major cause of the New York City epidemic. Subsequently, PHRI was designated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as an outbreak center for the molecular identification of TB.

Over the last decade, the TB Center has collaborated with the CDC, the New York City Department of Health, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senor Services, the New York State Department of Health - Wadsworth Center, and agencies in Russia, South Africa, the Czech Republic, India, and Egypt, to genetically characterize and catalogue more than 17,000 clinical M. tuberculosis isolates.

The PHRI TB Center uses the techniques of molecular epidemiology to develop precise genetic profile for each of the isolates in its strain repository. These profiles are catalogued in a database that makes it possible to track TB transmission in the community, hospitals, prisons, and airplanes. Strain typing enables scientists to discriminate between cases of multidrug resistant strains that have spread from person to person, and those where patients failed to adhere to therapy and developed drug resistance as a consequence. Strain typing also plays a significant role in helping mycobacteriology laboratories to reduce cases of laboratory cross-contamination, which can result in misdiagnosis and improper isolation and treatment of suspected cases of tuberculosis.

The TB Center's work in genotyping drug resistance genes has made it possible to define resistant strains in days rather than weeks. TB Center researchers have tested experimental compounds in drug discovery programs, and have developed rapid diagnostic tools to improve the accuracy and speed of speciation and drug susceptibility testing.

Through involvement in projects funded by the National Institutes of Health's Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study in the Health Sciences, the PHRI TB Center has trained numerous researchers, clinicians and mycobacteriologists from India, Eastern Europe, Russia and South Africa.

The PHRI TB Center provides a core resource which is used by many other researchers, at PHRI and elsewhere, in order that they may work safely on highly infectious materials. At PHRI, the TB Center is utilized for research performed by Dr. Karl Drlica, Dr. Issar Smith, Dr. Gilla Kaplan, Dr. Marila Gennaro, Dr. Richard Pine, and Dr. Yuri Bushkin, as well as by Dr. Kreiswirth. Additional information about the research of these scientists can be found on their pages within this web site.