Tuberculosis Assay Development

Tuberculosis, the leading cause of infectious disease-related deaths worldwide, is thought to kill some 1.5 million people per year. While curable when accurately diagnosed and properly treated, cases of both multi-drug resistance (to first-line antibiotics) and extensive-drug resistance (to multiple antibiotic classes) are on the rise.

Having access to inexpensive, broadly available, and minimally invasive testing is critical to curing TB, particularly in low-income settings where TB is most prevalent.

Quantigen is developing and validating a TB infection and antibiotic resistance testing workflow that combines the following:

• A minimally invasive tongue collection (as opposed to sputum)

• An extraction-free lysis procedure

• A low-cost PCR-based solution with medium-throughput capabilities.

By rapidly identifying both infection and any associated resistance for a low cost-per-sample, it will address the main needs of resource-constrained countries with high rates of TB infection.

Key collaborators:

• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (primary sponsor)
• PATH (Seattle, WA)
• Thermo Fisher Scientific