Global spread and transmission dynamics of Mycobacterium ulcerans

In the proposed research program we seek to clarify the global phylogeography of Mycobacterium ulcerans and to understand how it is transmitted to humans. Whole genome sequence analysis of clinical isolates of M. ulcerans in the comprehensive ITM strain collection from most endemic countries provides a unique opportunity to study the evolutionary history, intercontinental spread and phylogeography of M. ulcerans on a global scale. The addition of classical epidemiology at the village level in southern Benin and the Bas-Congo province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the bacterial genomic data, followed by further data-mining using mathematical modeling, will moreover provide a novel approach to unraveling the enigmatic nature of M. ulcerans transmission.
We expect that this study, unparalleled in size, duration and comprehensiveness, will provide fundamental insight in the transmission dynamics of M. ulcerans. Such understanding is central to the development of new strategies to track and interrupt the spread of the disease.