Students tap into fight on tuberculosis

By SIMON COLLINS

About 130 of the country's top high school science students are getting a glimpse into a worldwide battle against tuberculosis.

Auckland University senior lecturer Clyde Smith, one of the scientists running the National Science and Technology Forum at six universities and polytechnics, says tuberculosis is making a comeback.

"Tuberculosis is developing a resistance to many of the drugs that have been used against it, and is reappearing in many Third World countries," he said.

"It is also reappearing in parts of New Zealand such as South Auckland, because one of the major factors in TB is overcrowding, where you get some poorer families all living in one house."

Dr Smith's Auckland group is part of a consortium that includes universities in the United States, Korea and Britain, investigating the structure of proteins made by TB that could be targeted by new drugs.

In two years of work, the Auckland group led by Professor Ted Baker has determined three or four such structures.

Georgina Rae, a year 13 student at Rangitoto College who attended a class with Dr Smith yesterday, said the two-week forum was a chance to see many kinds of sciences.

"I don't know what I want to do but I know I enjoy science. This has given us an opportunity to see all the different labs," she said.

As well as classes with top scientists, the forum includes visits to high-tech companies such as Genesis Research and Development, the biotechnology firm sponsoring the forum.

The 132 students at the forum were nominated by schools and sponsored by Rotary clubs.

nzherald.co.nz/health