Biography

Dr. Ambreen Shaikh is a research officer at the Foundation for Medical Research in Mumbai, India, with over 8 years of experience in tuberculosis research. She holds a PhD in applied biology. At the foundation, she is part of the team that has developed and optimised the TB diagnostic workflow SMaRT-PCR, which integrates non-invasive mask-based patient aerosol sampling with RT-PCR for TB detection. The team is currently evaluating SMaRT-PCR in a large paediatric cohort across diverse resource settings. Her research encompasses TB pathogenesis through transcriptomics and studying small non-coding RNA, bacterial infectiousness studies, and analysis of the respiratory microbiome post-treatment.

Expertise

TB Diagnostics
Public Health

Key Impacts

Towards child-friendly TB diagnosis: An interim diagnostic accuracy analysis of SMaRT-PCR: A noninvasive mask-based TB diagnostic workflow

Preliminary results suggest that SMaRT-PCR has better sensitivity than conventional diagnostic tests, making it a promising noninvasive approach for pediatric TB detection. The complete sample size analysis will provide more accurate estimations of SMaRT-PCR’s diagnostic accuracy across diverse settings. A higher combined sensitivity of the two diagnostic tests suggests that SMaRT-PCR may serve as a beneficial complement to current diagnostic strategies, potentially improving detection rates.

Source: Conference 2024