A Kansas University professor is leading an international effort to study the DNA of tuberculosis, a disease that’s associated with a bygone era in the United States but is a growing problem worldwide.

The International Consortium for the Study of Tuberculosis, created in November, has its headquarters at KU under the direction of anthropology professor Michael Crawford. He’s known as one of the founders of the field of anthropological genetics, which essentially is the study of characteristics of human groups as they relate to their DNA.

“What we’re trying to find out is, ‘Why do some individuals have resistance while others die from the disease?'” Crawford asked. “If we can bring the mortality down, this has tremendous health repercussions for the world.”

The project includes researchers from the University of Arizona, University of Texas-El Paso, Southwest Institute for Biomedical Research and Texas Department of State Health Services.

Last month, the group met with government leaders in Chihuahua, Mexico, to lay the groundwork for the group’s first project – a study of TB patterns among the Tarahumara, a native tribe that lives in northern Mexico and has high rates of the disease.

“We’ll have to survey and test entire villages,” Crawford said.

The research will focus on the DNA of the people who contract the disease and the genetics of the “bugs” themselves. There are an estimated seven to nine known strains of tuberculosis, some of which are proving to be resistant to existing drugs.

It’s a timely topic in the world of science.

On Thursday, an editorial in the journal Nature called for greater attention and funding for TB research. The disease kills an estimated 2 million people worldwide each year, largely in Africa and India.

“Important questions, including how to develop better ways of detecting the disease cheaply and reliably, and how to assess the effectiveness of new drug combinations, go unanswered,” the editorial stated.

Crawford said the KU-based group eventually could develop a partnership with a drug company to help make customized medicines for different strains of the disease and people with specific genetic traits.

Two other faculty members in the KU anthropology department, Alan Redd and Bart Dean, are involved with the project. Redd’s role is to develop tests used to classify and provide detailed genetic fingerprints of the different strains of the disease. Dean is a cultural anthropologist who brings expertise in working with native tribes.

“I would consider myself the sort of interlocutor, the translator between different world views,” Dean said. “It’s really a biocultural approach: How does biology and culture interact?”

So far, the effort has received roughly $5,000 in funding for travel through the KU provost’s office, Crawford said. But the group has set its sights on major grants from other sources, including the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has pumped more than $200 million into TB research in recent years.

“We’ve got ideas and people and a will,” Redd said.

The goal is to use the research on the Tarahumara as a pilot for future research efforts worldwide, including along the U.S.-Mexico border, where undocumented workers are carrying strains of the disease into the United States.

“If all the factors come together as we’re hoping, $40 million will not be unreasonable for an international program,” Crawford said.