Tuberculosis

Kaixia Mi of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in China will identify biomarkers that define the diagnosis and status of tuberculosis infection.

Warren Zipfel of Cornell University in the U.S. will develop a simple, low-cost method to quantify levels of the tuberculosis-causing bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis in different tissues by measuring fluorescence emitted by one of its proteins, F420. To decrease the cost they will use a pulsed laser diode for F420 excitation, and analog electronics to process the fluorescence signal. They will optimize the detection circuitry and optics components, and evaluate its sensitivity and capacity for quantifying the bacteria in sputum and lung tissue.

Harvey Rubin from the University of Pennsylvania in the U.S. will develop a new quantitative imaging technology that uses acoustics to measure the total body levels of the tuberculosis-causing bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Current imaging methods are generally expensive or unable to measure in all parts of the body. This technology involves shining near-infrared light, which is safe and can penetrate deep into the body, to thermally expand a molecule activated in the presence of M. tuberculosis.