Alliance Focuses on TB Test

A collaboration to develop a rapid and simple test for the detection of active tuberculosis was announced at the 40th Annual US-Japan Tuberculosis and Leprosy Research Conference in Seattle (WA, USA) in July 2005.

The partners in the collaboration are The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND, Geneva, Switzerland), a nonprofit entity founded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle, WA, USA), and Eiken Chemical Co. Ltd., a Japanese manufacturer of clinical diagnostics (Tokyo, Japan).

As envisioned in the development agreement, the new test for tuberculosis will use the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method developed at Eiken and will be designed to detect DNA directly from clinical samples in less than two hours with minimal instrumentation. Molecular amplification methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are proven technologies for the detection of TB but have not been widely used in remote settings because of the cost and complexity of existing systems.

"Today's microscopy-based standard TB detection method was developed over a century ago and is time-consuming and frequently inaccurate,” observed Dr. Peter Small, senior program officer for tuberculosis, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "While treatment programs have improved the access of TB patients to effective therapy, diagnostics are now recognized as a primary hurdle in TB control and patient care.”

Mark Perkins, chief scientific officer of FIND, said, "Due to its simplicity, LAMP technology could make rapid and sensitive detection of TB possible even at peripheral levels of the health sector. The goal is to develop a test that requires minimal infrastructure, can be used at the point of care, and still delivers accurate results.”



Related Links:
FIND
Eiken Chemical