Development of an improved vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) is hindered by the lack of a
surrogate of protection. Efficacy of new TB vaccines in humans can only be evaluated by
expensive and time consuming efficacy trials within TB endemic areas. It is critical that
vaccines with the greatest potential to protect are selected for these trials. Mycobacterial
growth inhibition assays (MGIAs) have been developed with the hope that these in-vitro
functional assays will correlate with protection, which could aid in the selection of the best …