Mycobacterium

The new blood test promises to provide that speedy diagnosis. Investigators say it can tell within hours whether someone is infected with mycobacterium, the pathogen that causes tuberculosis.

Until now, scientists couldn’t distinguish the silent bacteria from the active ones to know whether dormant mycobacterium were being killed by different compounds. Abramovitch and colleagues developed a strain of the pathogen that glows bright green. They found it stopped glowing after artemisinin came into contact with the mycobacteria’s oxygen biosensor, presumably dying.