Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $1,500,000 over three years to the University of Washington to support work led by Professor Chetan Seshadri on developing a tonsil organoid system for tuberculosis (TB) research. This involves using tonsils as an in vitro model of TB granulomas, which are structures that are involved in TB bacterial expansion and in latent TB infections. Professor Seshadri’s team will use this model to study the immune system’s response to TB.
Open Philanthropy’s science team believes that this work will also be broadly relevant to scientific tools, immunology, and tuberculosis vaccines.
This falls within Open Philanthropy’s focus area of scientific research, specifically within its interest in transformative basic science.