The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Chevy Chase, Maryland, last week announced the setting-up of its first research laboratory outside the United States. The KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV in Durban, South Africa, will operate in partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal and will focus on the increasing incidence of tuberculosis in those infected with HIV.

One in ten individuals worldwide is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes the disease, but it does not usually cause full-blown disease. However, M. tuberculosis can be devastating in individuals whose immune systems are weakened by HIV. South Africa accounts for almost one-fifth of the global HIV disease burden, and tuberculosis, including multi-drug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant strains, is a major problem there. The HHMI will invest US$60 million in the centre over the next decade, and will bring in the cream of its international scientists to help train local researchers.