News & Events

You can read Madhukar Pai’s paper “From Thomas Mann to John Green, how authors and books shape our understanding of TB” published in IJTLD Open.

Congratulations to Jody Boffa, who will be an Assistant Professor in Public Health at Concordia University of Edmonton!

Read Jeyashree Kathiresan and Madhukar Pai’s new opinion piece “Social protection for tuberculosis—how can we make it universal?” published in The Lancet Public Health.

Read this collaborative paper from Madhukar Pai and colleagues “The tuberculogenic environment” published in The Lancet Global Health.

You can read Madhukar Pai’s new commentary “Three reasons why the European region should worry about tuberculosis” published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

The 2026 edition of the McGill Summer Institutes in Global Health will take place from May 25 to June 19. This year, 20 courses are being offered. Register now!

Congratulations to Zhi Zhen Qin, who successfully defended her PhD! Zhi Zhen, who did her MSc under Madhu’s supervision, did her PhD under Claudia Denkinger’s supervision, a former postdoctoral fellow in the group. Bravo!

See Madhukar Pai’s tribute to Bill Foege, who passed away this week, along with lessons that can be learned from the life of this legend in global public health.

Read the new paper from Rachael Barrett, Zhi Zhen Qin, Mikashmi Kohli and Madhukar Pai “AI-powered digital stethoscopes: A new opportunity in tuberculosis screening?” published in Med.

From December 15 to 19, ICMR-NIRT hosted the 2025 “Advanced TB Diagnostics course – A capacity building workshop for countries in the South-East Asian Region” in Chennai, India. The workshop is part of a Gates Foundation’s initiative.

Congratulations to Luz Villa Castillo who submitted her MSc thesis this November! Luz is now working as an ID epidemiologist at the French National Health Agency (Santé Publique France) – bravo! We would also like to thank Petra Heitkamp, Surbhi Sheokand, Joel Klinton and Isabel Munoz Beaulieu for all their contributions, as they are leaving our team at the end of the year. Thank you!

You can read Madhukar Pai’s recent op-ed “From doing science to saving science” published in The Lancet.

You can read “From dependence to self-reliance: The future of the global tuberculosis response” from Petra Heitkamp, Obioma Chijioke-Akaniro and Madhukar Pai published in PLOS Medicine.

Madhukar Pai and colleagues published the opinion piece “Global south’s TB diagnostics innovations are key to fight the epidemic“, which you can read on Devex.

You can read Alexandra’s latest paper “Objective cough counting in clinical practice and public health: a scoping review” published in The Lancet Digital Health.

The 2025 Union conference was held November 18 to 21 this year, in Copenhagen (Denmark). Notable events involving our group included the satellite session “Transforming TB detection through tongue swab-based molecular testing“, the spotlight session “Tuberculosis: New warriors take on an old enemy” (see the video here) and the workshop “Critical path for introducing & scaling new diagnostics in high burden countries” held on November 18th (below).

It was also a great opportunity to connect with alumni!

Make sure to check out Madhu’s latest opinion piece “Kids have a right to vaccinations. Let’s bring in the lawyers” published in STATnews.

Congratulations to Shashika who won the 2025 Teaching Excellence award by the McGill Association of Postdoctoral Fellows! He also recently published “Disinvesting in the future leadership of global health has already begun: What can we do about it?“, which you can read in PLOS Global Public Health.

Heartfelt congratulations to Madhu, who was awarded the President’s Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Full Professor category)! This prestigious award recognizes excellence and commitment to teaching and the importance of these qualities in the academic experience of students at McGill University. Madhu officially received the prize from Provost Christopher Manfredi at the Fall Convocation. You can find out more in this McGill Reporter article.

Madhukar Pai, Petra Heitkamp and Yogan Pillay recently published the commentary “Integration of tuberculosis services within primary health care: converting challenges into opportunities“, which you can read in The Lancet Primary Care.

You can read Madhukar Pai, Esme Longley and colleagues’ opinion piece ““You can’t see what you’ve never had to live”—Cultivating imagination and solution spaces in global health and development” published in PLOS Global Public Health.

Through his over 25 years of research on TB, Madhukar Pai has read a ton of books on TB. He shared his “best of” historical, fiction, personal narrative, and contemporary books on TB in a post on Springer Nature Reseearch Communities.

The WHO published its consensus statement and call to action on optimal and early inclusion of pregnant and lactating women in TB research. Congratulations to Madlen Nash for all her hard work on this!

You can read the latest paper from Esme and Shashika “Towards inclusive authorship: Analyzing author representation in PLOS Global Public Health front matter content” published in PLoS Global Public Health.

On August 18th, WHO hosted a webinar to launch its policy brief on “TB and PHC: synergies and opportunities towards universal health coverage“, for which Madhukar Pai was one of the invited speakers.

Congratulations to all the contributors to this important WHO publication, including Mikashmi Kohli, as well as Claudia Denkinger, Zhi Zhen Qin and Madhukar Pai: “Target product profiles for tuberculosis screening tests“.

Congratulations to Jeyashree! She was awarded a Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences studentship for the 2nd year of her MSc!

Congratulations to Luz for winning a McGill International TB Centre student travel award! This award will support Luz in attending the 2025 Union conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.