This disease kills 1.6million people a year, mainly in developing countries.
Dr Harold is an assistant research fellow in the laboratory of Prof Greg Cook, in the University of Otago microbiology and immunology department.
Last weekend, Dr Harold graduated from Otago with a doctorate in microbiology, having investigated the role of two proteins, called flavoproteins, in mycobacterial physiology.
He was driven partly by scientific curiosity, but was also well aware of the major human impact of Tb in the developing world, with more than 10 million new cases each year.
''To improve the world, it definitely drives me a little bit more,'' he said yesterday.
Mycobacteria presented ''a global health problem'' and included Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which killed 1.6 million a year.
Tuberculosis was already treated with a multi-drug cocktail.
However, growing problems with antibiotic resistance in developing countries meant that a new generation approach being developed at the Cook laboratory, including potentially new therapeutic targets, could eventually prove effective.
A key factor with mycobacteria was their ability to ''persist in the absence of growth'', when facing low oxygen levels or nutrient limitation.
Mycobacteria synthesised many flavoproteins to meet the energy requirements of either survival maintenance or growth.
His research focused both on flavin-sequestering protein, Fsq, which was shown to be important to maintaining the mycobacteria in low oxygen and oxidative stress, and a second protein, Mqo, which was essential for growth under some circumstances, he said.
The latter protein seemed a potentially promising target.
If it was inactivated, it was likely to prevent or delay growth, possibly contributing to a broader new generation drug cocktail attack on tuberculosis.
He said he would be pleased if his research could contribute in any way to countering the ''huge problem'' of tuberculosis.
