🔴 Day 2 Live Update
An insightful presentation by Dr. Smriti Mehra, PhD, on “Investigating the Role of Indoleamine Dioxygenase in Modulating Immune Responses to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Host and Pathogen Heterogeneity in Tuberculosis.”
Dr. Mehra is Professor and Principal Investigator at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, where she serves as a Core Scientist in the Southwest National Primate Research Center. Her research focuses on tuberculosis, HIV, host immune responses and host-directed approaches to TB.
A major focus of her research is understanding how immune responses are regulated within tuberculosis granulomas. Her work has particularly examined indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), an immunoregulatory enzyme that is strongly induced in TB granulomas and may influence the activity and distribution of immune cells within infected tissue.
Research led by Dr. Mehra and colleagues has investigated IDO inhibition as a potential host-directed approach alongside conventional TB treatment. In a study published in JCI Insight, IDO inhibition in a macaque TB model was associated with changes in granuloma organization, increased recruitment of effector T cells and improved control of M. tuberculosis when used alongside chemotherapy.
Her broader research also examines the heterogeneity of TB infection and immune responses using nonhuman primate models, providing a framework for studying how different immune environments can influence tuberculosis disease and treatment.
This presentation brings together important questions at the intersection of immunometabolism, granuloma biology, host–pathogen interactions and host-directed approaches to tuberculosis, contributing to the scientific discussions at Frontiers in TB & Mycobacteriology 2026.
This conference is organized by Impact Research Communications (IRC)
More info: https://tb.ircconferences.net/ | Frontiers in TB & Mycobacteriology
