title: Genomic insights into tuberculosis.
abstract: Prevalent since pre-history, human tuberculosis - caused by the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis - remains a major source of death worldwide. Moreover, increasing drug resistance poses the threat of disease resurgence. However, the expanding application of genomic techniques is providing new avenues for combating this old foe. Whole-genome sequencing, comparative genomics and systems biology are generating new insights into the origins and ongoing evolution of M. tuberculosis, as well as the molecular basis for its pathogenicity. These have important implications for our perspective of the disease, development of new drugs and vaccines, and treatment of patients using existing therapeutics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Bioinformatics program and National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory, Boston University, 34 Cummington Mall 1002, Boston, Massachusetts 02215; and Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA.
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Galagan
mesh_terms: D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D010802:Phylogeny; D049490:Systems Biology; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*