Mireille Kamariza

Mireille Kamariza, 35, created a new test for Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is cheap, can check for drug resistance, and is far faster than the most widely used alternatives, cutting the time it takes to get diagnostic results. 

Tuberculosis kills around 1.3 million people a year, making it more deadly than any other infectious disease, with the recent exception of covid-19. But the standard test used in the developing world—in which a doctor looks at a sputum sample (also known as phlegm) under a microscope to search for the bacteria—hasn’t changed much in over 100 years, and it can take weeks to return results that are not always accurate.

Kamariza’s test is based on a special dye she invented that fluoresces when it’s incorporated into the cell walls of living M. tuberculosis. By attaching her dye to trehalose, a sugar the bacteria use for fuel, Kamariza ensures the dye ends up in a living sample. In other words, feed the dyed trehalose to the bacterium from a sputum sample, and in as little as a few minutes it will glow under fluorescent light. Then, if you give a patient an antibiotic, within a few hours you’ll see if a new sample still lights up.

Kamariza’s breakthrough is based on fundamental chemical and biological concepts that have existed for decades. “The tricky thing was recognizing that this kind of chemistry could be applied in a diagnostic landscape,” she says. “I think no one had really considered it. It was a long shot.” 

To move her technology from the lab to the field, Kamariza co-founded a company structured to benefit the public rather than focus on profits. Now, while pursuing clinical trials, her team has shown that the same dye works on blood samples, which could make testing in the field safer and more broadly available.

“This dye can attach to a different sugar that targets a different bacteria, or virus, or parasite, or even the host,” Kamariza says. “Potentially even a cancer cell.”