A vaccine for tuberculosis exists, but TB is still the 2nd leading infectious killer in the world after Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization.

With a $12.3 million contract from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at the University of Montana are hoping to improve the vaccine for TB and positively influence global health.

Last month, the Missoula flagship announced UM and its research partners were awarded a five-year contract to develop a new “adjuvant” to be used with the TB vaccine.

Adjuvants are substances that boost the effectiveness of vaccines, and UM’s Center for Translational Medicine has a couple of decades’ worth of work on those substances.