What we do
TBnet is a European grass-root consortium consisting of health care professionals and scientists, aimed at promoting quality of care for tuberculosis patients by addressing health-inequalities, providing expert guidance in areas where clinical evidence is missing, defining research priorities, conducting multicenter clinical studies, and training early career European clinicians and scientists.
Steering Committee
Liga Kuksa
is a pulmonologist. She is the Head of Multidrug Resistant TB Department, TB and Lung Disease Center, Riga East University Hospital.
Her work is focused on MDR-TB management, as well as research and training in the field of TB at the national and international level.
Liga Kuksa is the Chair of the TBnet since October 2021.
Jose Domínguez
is a microbiologist and researcher in the Institut d'Investigació Germans Trias i Pujol, and Assistant Professor in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, that has been working in the last years in developing new methods for diagnosing latent and active TB. Jose is a member of the Steering Committee is in charge of the Microbiology and Drug Resistant issues.
Ilaria Motta
is an infectious diseases physician with experience in managing HIV and TB infections in resource limited settings. In 2018, she obtained her PhD in pharmacokinetics of TB drugs. She is currently working as a medical monitor for the TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial with MSF-UK, and she collaborates as a clinical adviser to the EndTB clinical trial with MSF-France. Ilaria is a member of the Steering Committee in charge of Clinical Tuberculosis area.
Christoph Lange
is the Medical Director of the Research Center Borstel, Germany. He is a physician scientist with a strong interest in European healthcare systems and personalized medicine for patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis. Within the TBnet, he is responsible for Education.
Olena Rzhepishevska
is a microbiologist & molecular biologist. She works as a researcher/principle research engineer at Umeå University, Sweden and is interested in omics methods, especially, metabolomics for understanding antibacterial effect of drugs and detection of biomarkers for diagnostics of infectious diseases. She currently is the Vice Chair of the TBnet.
Irina Kontsevaya
is a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Center Borstel focusing on TB diagnostics, novel biomarkers of disease and cure and treatment monitoring tools. In 2014 she obtained her PhD in genetics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. As a member of the TBnet Steering Committee, she is responsible for Diagnostics.
Berit Lange
is a clinician epidemiologist, working as a doctor and researcher in the Department for Infectious Diseases at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Within the TBnet she is responsible for Epidemiology.
Jakko van Ingen
is a consultant clinical microbiologist, head of the mycobacteriology reference laboratory at Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands and author of 150 papers on mycobacterial disease.
Thomas Jürs
has been a member of the TBnet since its foundation in 2006. Since then he has been responsible for the budget - an easy task for him as he is a tax consultant and chartered accountant in everyday life and is particularly active in the fields of healthcare and research.
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Martina Sester
is an immunologist and head of the department of transplant and infection immunology at Saarland University in Homburg, Germany. Her research focuses on the development of diagnostic tests for latent and active infection with M. tuberculosis. Within the TBnet, she is responsible for Translational Research.
Lorenzo Guglielmetti
is an Infectious Diseases physician and researcher in Epidemiology at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and at the National Reference Center for Mycobacteria in Paris, France. His research focuses on developing new treatment approaches for drug-resistant tuberculosis. Within the TBnet, he is responsible for Clinical Trials.
Folke Brinkmann
is a paediatrician and temporarily heads the paediatric pneumology department at the Catholic Hospital in Bochum.
Jessica Potter
is a consultant in respiratory medicine and clinical lead for tuberculosis at North Middlesex Hospital in London. Her research uses social science methodology to explore structural inequalities and access to healthcare. She campaigns on issues relating to healthcare access rights for migrants, workers' rights and structural racism. Jess is a member of the steering committee with a role focusing on advocacy.
Graham Bothamley
has been a respiratory physician for 35 years and has looked after >3,000 patients with TB. After a PhD with the MRC at the Hammersmith in TB monoclonal antibodies, diagnostics and pathogenesis, he has pursued research in diagnostics and human immune responses.