Fast portable blood test that detects active tuberculosis using antibody fingerprints
Microscale Multiplexed Antibody Fc Profiling and Nanoscale Electronic Detection for Rapid and Scalable Point-of-Care Diagnosis of Tuberculosis
A quick, handheld blood test that reads detailed antibody patterns to tell if someone has active tuberculosis, aimed at people who can’t give sputum or are living with HIV or children.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Georgia Institute of Technology NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Atlanta, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11126564 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
The team is building a point-of-care device that uses a small blood sample instead of sputum to find active M. tuberculosis infection. It measures many antibody features at once — including Fc glycosylation, isotype/subtype, and Fc receptor binding — using microscale multiplexing and nanoscale electronic sensors. Machine learning will combine these antibody fingerprints to distinguish active TB from latent infection. The work includes testing samples from people with suspected TB, including children and people with HIV, and moving toward a scalable clinic-ready device for low-resource settings.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: People with symptoms of possible TB—especially those who cannot produce sputum, children, and people living with HIV in TB-endemic areas—would be ideal candidates to participate.
Not a fit: People without active TB (for example, those with only latent TB infection) and individuals already diagnosed and successfully treated for TB would be unlikely to receive direct benefit from this diagnostic effort.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could provide a fast, accurate, and portable way to diagnose active TB from blood, allowing quicker treatment and reducing missed cases especially among children and people with HIV.
How similar studies have performed: Prior research has shown that antibody glycosylation and other antibody features can mark active infections including TB, but combining multiplex Fc profiling with nanoscale electronic point-of-care detection is a novel and early-stage approach.
Where this research is happening
Atlanta, United States
- Georgia Institute of Technology — Atlanta, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Sarkar, Aniruddh — Georgia Institute of Technology
- Study coordinator: Sarkar, Aniruddh
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.