Shaira Acosta gave an exciting Pitch at AMYC-BIOMED 2024
Shaira Jane Acosta delivered an impressive pitch at the AMYC-BIOMED 2024 conference in Rome, held from September 23-25, 2024.
Her presentation, titled "A magnetic bead-antibody bait for selecting aptamers against Mycobacterium tuberculosis secretory antigen ESAT-6/CFP-10 heterodimer for tuberculosis rapid test development", showcased her research in the field of tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics.
Every minute, three people are dying from tuberculosis - our oldest and deadliest foe that we can catch from the tiny droplets in the air. Tuberculosis or TB, is a sneaky disease, and until today, many people with TB still go undiagnosed.
But what if the key to better TB detection lay in the very building blocks of life itself? The DNA, four-letter building blocks strung together, is not just the blueprint of life, we can also use them as tools for better TB detection. TB detection is actually challenging, especially in underserved areas or when patients can't produce sputum. Detecting it from the blood or urine are rather better options. Proteins, ESAT-6 and CFP-10, secreted by actively growing TB bacteria can be found in blood and urine, and we can use them to give us a clue whether TB bacterium is there or not.
In her PhD research, she generated a DNA-based tool, called aptamer, with a very strong attraction to TB proteins. You can think of an aptamer as a tiny fish net that folds into specific shapes that can catch a specific fish, and in her case the TB proteins, helps her to distinguish them in a tank full of other proteins.
Why is this important? A significant majority of individuals infected with TB remain undiagnosed each year. Traditional TB diagnosis relies heavily on sputum samples, which not all TB-infected individuals can produce. Shaira's research focuses on developing biomarker-based rapid tests using non-sputum samples, such as urine and blood, which could revolutionize TB detection.
Congratulations to Shaira Jane Acosta for her remarkable contribution to TB research!
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