Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, remains one of the world's most serious public health problems. Although tuberculosis is curable and the treatment success rate is high, it is still the second most common cause of death from infectious disease (after HIV). It causes more than 1.3 million deaths annually, and most of the deaths occur in developing countries that are lack of effective identification of those in need of therapy, with an enormous amount of delayed or failed diagnosis.

Case detection is currently the rate-limiting step in disease control. The available Nucleic Acid Detection (NAD) Method is sensitive and fast, but does not reach the requirement of specificity and reliability.

To obviate such problems, Peking iGEM team is developing a novel PC Reporters system that can transform biomarkers of the disease into optical signal. Combined with array design and statistical analysis, the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis can be easily verified. It can also be easily used in developing areas with designed hardware development. We believe this new advanced system can turn out as a powerful tool in disease diagnosis, with high specificity and reliability.