Kattya Lopez is a Ph.D. candidate at Rutgers, New Jersey Medical School, working at the International Center for Public Health. She studies the host immune response to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection, aiming to improve diagnostic tools and identify alternatives to current TB vaccine. With four years of experience in TB diagnostics, her work bridges immunology and translational research to address critical gaps in tuberculosis control.
Our four-gene host signature showed high performance in identifying TB among culture-positive individuals with Ultra very low/trace results. The four-gene host signature outperformed the use of prior TB history or other published TB and met WHO TPP (designed for all, not just paucibacillary TB) for a triage test. With further validation, this blood-based test could be an effective triage tool for paucibacillary TB and exploratory biomarker for culture-negative TB.
Source: Conference 2024