The tubercle bacillus (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) infects approximately one quarter of the world's population and is responsible for three million deaths each year. The related pathogen, Mycobacterium bovis, causes disease in many mammals and is a major cause of economic loss in livestock, particularly cows. Mycobacterial research within the Microbial Sciences Group is focussed on understanding the pathogenic mechanisms that allow Mycobacterium tuberculosis to cause about three million deaths each year, identification of new drug targets and development of new vaccines to treat the disease. Most of our work utilises a systems biology modelling approach, particularly applied to metabolism. We constructed the first genome-scale metabolic model of the TB bacillus and used the model to analyse the metabolism of the pathogen both in the laboratory (http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/184899/) and in infected cells . The following projects are ongoing: Identification of nitrogen source and metabolism of Mycobacterium tuberculosis during intracellular replication. BBSRC-funded. Development of recombinant BCG vaccine and complementary diagnostics for TB control in cattle. BBSRC-funded BBSRC Investigation of stochastic variations in growth rate as the mechanism of drug tolerance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. BBSRC-funded. Improving BCG vaccination to make it compatible with the skin test. Gates Foundation-funded. Defining the metabolic phenotype of intracellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis. (PI, Dany Beste) MRC-funded. SurreyFBA: Interactive tool for computer simulations of genome scale metabolic networks. (PI, Andrzej Kierzek), BBSRC-funded.