The Seattle-based Infectious Disease Research Institute has announced a multimillion-dollar grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to identify new leads and drug targets suitable for further development, with the ultimate goal of producing new drugs to treat tuberculosis.

Awarded through the foundation's TB Drug Accelerator program, the grant will enable IRDI to identify and evaluate promising new drug-like compounds that are active against the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative, of which IDRI is a member, will play a critical role in the work by providing the organization with access to a library of approximately eight hundred thousand compounds belonging to Eli Lilly and Company. IDRI will leverage its expertise in molecular and microbial biology to identify novel targets for future drug screening.

According to the World Health Organization, nearly two million people a year die of TB, approximately nine million are infected, and half a million cases turn out to be resistant to drugs that used to be effective against the disease.

"We are excited about the momentum this award provides to our TB drug discovery program," said Steve Reed, IDRI founder and head of the organization's research and development efforts.