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.
Natalie Lorent
is a Pulmonologist/Clinical Infectiologist with a passion for mycobacterial infections. Her work and clinical research focuses on improving diagnosis and care for patients affected by TB/NTM. She has extensive experience in managing TB(HIV) in low-resource settings in Africa and Asia and is currently working at the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium. Within the TBnet steering committee, she represents NTMnet.
Conor Tweed
is a physician specialising in respiratory medicine based in London, UK. He practices hospital medicine and manages patients with tuberculosis and other mycobacterial infections in both the inpatient and outpatient setting. He is an Honorary Clinical Assistant Professor at University College London with an interest in clinical trials and methodology. Patient-centred research and Patient and Public Involvement in clinical trials has been a major focus of his academic work, and he has worked with different advocacy groups and TB survivors in this context.
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.
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Simone Tunesi
is an infectious diseases physician focused on TB clinical management. Currently working in Alessandria, Italy, with past experiences in France, including a Sanatorium, and in a rural health service in Senegal. His research works include clinical management of DR TB, coadministration of DAAs and second line TB drugs and the role of T-SPOT in lymphadenitis diagnosis. Simone is a member of the Steering Committee in charge of Clinical Tuberculosis area.
Irina Kontsevaya
is an honorary postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London based in Germany. Her research focuses 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.
Gunar Günther
is a pulmonologist, currently working at Inselspital, Hospital of the University of Bern (Switzerland) and Katatura State Hospital / School of Medicine of the University of Namibia (Windhoek, Namibia). Gunar is member of TBnet since 2008 and has a strong interest in capacity building, operational research and clinical TB care in Europe and Africa.He is the vice chair of TBnet since 2023.
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.
Francesca Saluzzo
is a physician specialized in Microbiology and Virology with an MSc in International Health. Currently
she is working at Vita Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, Italy. Her research focuses on the
validation and implementation of new diagnostic tools and frameworks for drug resistant tuberculosis
and respiratory infectious diseases opting for a participatory and people centred approach. Within
TBnet she is responsible for Microbiology.
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.