Dr Kerri Viney of NCEPH has joined the Steering Committee of the newly-established Centre for Tuberculosis Research at the Karolinksa Institute in Sweden. Tuberculosis is one of the most common infectious diseases in the world, and the hope is that the new research centre will contribute to better diagnostic methods, vaccines and treatments. The Karolinska Institute is a distinguished university which selects the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine each year. It has a long history of research into TB and the new centre will build on in-house expertise and extensive international collaborations, including with the ANU. NCEPH runs the Australian Tuberculosis Risk Factor Study. Each year, around 1300 cases of TB, or 5.5 cases per 100,00 population, are reported, a rate that has changed little since the 1980s.