Development of a Rapid Diagnostic Test for Tuberculosis

Researchers at the AcIRSTD with the expertise from the Accademia Nazionale di Medicina (AccMed), Italy will develop rapid tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic tests to create fast, affordable, and accurate point-of-care tools that detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis and drug resistance within hours instead of weeks, replacing slow traditional methods to stop disease spread and save lives. This requires overcoming the slow speed and low accuracy of old methods like sputum smear microscopy. Key focus areas include targeting molecular biomarkers, utilizing isothermal amplification, and designing portable field kits.

The outcome will highlight highly accurate, battery-powered near point-of-care (NPOC) molecular tools, non-sputum options like tongue swabs, and specific blood assays. This innovation is expected to yield results in under an hour, bypass old microscopy limits, and improve detection in high-burden and remote regions. In addition, it is expected to delivers crucial clinical and public health advantages, notably enabling early detection within two hours, identifying drug resistance simultaneously, and facilitating point-of-care testing in remote settings