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The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University December 10, 2007 | Vol. 37 No. 14
 
TB Fighters Make Esquire's Best and Brightest List

By Katerina Pesheva
Johns Hopkins Medicine

Hidden in a lab, clad in plastic gowns, booties and gloves, poring over lung-tissue samples, Johns Hopkins infectious disease specialists Jacques Grosset, Sanjay Jain, Gyanu Lamichhane and Eric Nuermberger don't conjure up the image of those you would read about on the glossy pages of an upscale men's magazine. But the four have landed spots on Esquire's 2007 Best and Brightest list for their work to find new cures for TB.

The rankings feature 36 revolutionaries, or "36 reasons for hope," among them scientists, doctors, artists, engineers and a free-speech advocate.

At the Johns Hopkins Center for TB Research, the four scientists are working to develop new treatments for TB and improve existing ones.

Grosset, 78, received his medical degree from the University of Paris. After contracting the disease at the age of 24, Grosset decided to study the deadly bacterium, and he has devoted much of his subsequent work to testing and finding new treatments. His work has illuminated much of what is known about TB drug therapy today. After working almost his entire career in his native France and in Algiers, he joined Johns Hopkins in 2002.

Jain, 32, a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, went to medical school in India, a country where TB is endemic. He completed his pediatric residency at Floating Hospital for Children in Boston and his fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins. Jain leads a project to design a system that visually tracks the TB bacterium in the body and monitors its response to drug treatments. Jain also studies central nervous system TB, which disproportionately affects younger children.

Lamichhane, 32, a microbiologist, received his PhD from Hopkins and was a visiting fellow at the University of Toronto. He currently studies the genetic underpinnings of TB and, together with his colleague William Bishai, has identified several genes involved in TB that may serve as new targets for drug therapy.

Nuermberger, 37, an infectious disease specialist who also has an appointment in International Health at the Bloomberg School, trained at Vanderbilt University. He completed his residency and fellowship in infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins. Nuermberger works with mice and other models to develop new, shorter drug regimens.

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