Biography

Dr. Tara Ness is an Assistant Professor in the Global Tuberculosis Program at Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's Hospital studying novel methods for diagnosing tuberculosis, especially in children. In addition, she holds an Adjunct faculty position at the University of Alaska Anchorage and University of Washington School of Medicine. By utilizing innovative diagnostic technologies such as targeted next generation sequencing, Dr. Ness hopes to improve our ability to diagnose and treat tuberculosis as well as explore pathogen characteristics that can be linked to differing host immune responses.

Expertise

TB Diagnostics
Public Health

Key Impacts

FreezeTB: A fast, reliable, economical tool to zap endemic TB using nanopore targeted next generation sequencing

FreezeTB provides a one-day laboratory and bioinformatic workflow for sequencing M. tuberculosis; offering an OS software with graphical user interface and a laboratory workflow costing under $35 per sample. Freeze TB can accurately determine resistance for rifampin, isoniazid, streptomycin, ethambutol and ethionamide and is designed to detect resistance in newer drugs, such as bedaquiline and pretomanid.

Source: Conference 2024