History:
In 1899, Mozafar-al-Din Shah, the crown prince of Gajar Dynasty had been involved with tuberculosis and French physicians advised him to spend a period for his treatment in a place with fresh mountain air. Mirza Ali Asghar Khan Amin-al-Soltan, the Prime Minister, found a perfect place with pleasant weather in the northern mountains of Tehran and decided to build a mansion for this purpose. After Mozafar-al-Din Shah’s death, this mansion was gradually converted into a sanitarium for TB patients. Several buildings were added to the building to serve TB patients referred to this center from all over the country. After the change of government, these pieces of land along with the mansion inside were abandoned until Dr. Masih Daneshvari with his utmost attempt was allowed to establish a nursing school in it.
Then, Several buildings have been added to the complex by the Health Ministry of the time and some NGO organizations. In 1986 this hospital became a sub division of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical sciences and the hospital served as a center for Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases.
In 1992, the research institute was established and merged with the hospital entitled "National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Masih Daneshvari Hospital”.

The National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (NRITLD), Masih Daneshvari Hospital, is determined to gain international fame as an active prosperous center in providing medical services in the field of tuberculosis and lung diseases.

Achievements:
1. Lung transplantation
2. Heart transplantation
3. Simultaneous heart - lung and  heart-kidney transplantation for the first time in Iran

4. Discovering new horizons in Tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment such as MDR TB Bacilli
5. Transplantation of an artificial biologic trachea
6. Construction of bio artificial liver
7. National reference HPV laboratory

8. Referral Lab in the country for respiratory viruses

9. Tracheal transplantation in sheep
10. Telescopic arterial of carotid artery of sheep’s neck and transplantation of its allograft.

11. jugular vein  cryopreservation
12. Build Artificial trachea on using Nano technology and also its clean room.

13. Repairing Symblepharone based on Nano-Matrix and cell growth of its cognitive
14. Gene discovery in the incidence of leprosy and patenting it in the gene bank and publishing reports in international journals

15.  Successful experimental transplantation of trachea to esophagus for the first time in Iran
16.  Establishing the first pharmaceutical care unit and the first hospital pharmaceutical clean room in the country
17. National TB Reference Laboratory.

International commitments and collaborations of the NRITLD:

·  WHO Collaborating Center for Tuberculosis Education in EMRO (one of the six WHO regional offices around the world) for six consecutive periods of four years since 1993 till now.

·  WHO Collaborating Center for Tobacco Control since 2007 till now.

·  Collaborating center in Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases in Iran (GARD, Iran).

·  Secretariat Office of Iranian Stop TB Committee

·  Training Affairs Office, Self-Reliance in Vaccine Production among Islamic Countries  in collaboration with the IDB(Islamic Development Bank) ,2005-2008

·  Secretariat Office of the IUATLD in the Middle East Region, 1996- 2008

·  The IUATLD collaborating center for TB Lab since 2007

·  Collaborations at International scientific projects with different Universities and companies such as Utrecht University, DANONE …

·  Signing MOU with well-known universities and organizations (Tufts, Utrecht, Menzies ,ATS …).

·  Having an active presence at ERS and ATS exhibition in International community village.

NRITLD has been Organized various training workshops with collaboration of international Institutes such as:

·  Organizing International Workshops of TB/HIV Integration program with collaboration with  KNCV foundation in Netherlands

·  Organizing educational training courses  on TB (Laboratory and Clinical) with cooperation of WHO ,EMRO

·  International Congress for Organ Donation in collaboration with Spain Transplantation Trainers (TPM)

·  Organizing MDR TB International MDR Management Workshop  with cooperation of JICA(Japan  International Cooperation Agency)

·  Organizing International Workshop on MDR TB for Neighboring Countries  physicians and lab technicians with cooperation if Iran's MOH

·  Active participation in Joint  training courses in  Turkey-ATS MECOR program

·  Biannual international congress on pulmonary diseases ,Intensive care and Tuberculosis (from 2003- present)