Enhancing the Diagnosis of Tuberculosis Using Mycobacteriophages

Lily Telisinghe of University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust together with Ben Swift at PBD Biotech Ltd in the United Kingdom will develop a system combining a biological agent and mechanical disruption for the rapid lysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from patient samples to enhance TB diagnosis. Tests will be performed to determine if there are constraints for two biosample types, tongue swabs and blood, on how soon after sampling they must be analyzed. These sample types will then be spiked with the BCG vaccine strain and used to determine the optimal combination of factors for cell lysis. This combination of conditions will then be used to test how the lysis system performs for TB diagnosis in patients in the United Kingdom and Indonesia.