The TBTC is a collaboration of researchers from the CDC, domestic and international public health departments, academic medical centers, and selected Veterans Administration medical centers whose mission is to conduct programmatically relevant research concerning the diagnosis, clinical management, and prevention of tuberculosis (TB) infection and disease. The purposes of the TBTC are to conduct research that expands clinical and epidemiologic knowledge of TB and facilitates the diagnosis, clinical management, and prevention of tuberculosis infection and disease; to integrate research into the care of persons with TB infection and disease; to develop research questions that are relevant to program settings in general; to promote research within local TB control programs through collaboration on clinical research of relevance to public health settings; and to provide a forum for international collaborative research of importance to both domestic and international TB control.

Goals of research are to integrate basic scientific advances in the field of TB with clinical research methods to help improve the care of patients with TB and HIV/TB worldwide.  Conduct of programmatically relevant clinical trials of new and promising TB diagnostics and therapeutics for application in resource-limited settings.