TB Tested — Drs. Bill Jacobs and Paras Jain report their development of a new diagnostic tool for Mycobacterium tuberculosis Mtb) infection in a recent online edition of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. They generated the bacteriophage F2GFP10, an Mtb-specific virus, that injects its DNA and causes the bug to fluoresce 100-fold brighter than what can be achieved with existing tools. This exceptionally bright fluorescence allows, for the first time, Mtb detection at the low levels that are present in clinical sputum samples. It also proved to be very effective for rapid drug susceptibility testing of Mtb to several relevant antibiotics. Dr. Jacobs is professor of microbiology & immunology and of genetics and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Dr. Jain is an associate in microbiology & immunology.
Posted on: Wednesday, March 28, 2012