Tuberculosis (TB) is a worldwide major health problem. One third of the world’s population are estimated to be infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is the second major killer of adults after cardiovascular disease which kills 69.541 people and infect another 2.873.000 people anually. The absence of reliable diagnostic tool in suburban area, where TB cases are most likely found, is still a great obstacle in TB eradication effort.

Indonesia is one of the high burden countries for TB. The currently used method for detecting TB, the acid fast bacilli smear, has several difficulties such as getting the sputum (instead of saliva), and training the laboratory personnel to do the test. Based on this problem, UI iGEM team are trying to create a reliable, portable, and easy to use diagnostic tool for detecting TB. We are constructing a biosensor consist of highly specific antibody bound to a reporter to detect the presence of protein Ag85, a novel TB biomarker)

We are going to make a biosensor that will detect the presence of antigen 85, a potential tuberculosis biomarker. Antigen 85 is found in sputum, urine and most abundantly, blood serum of TB patient. Hence, blood serum of TB suspect will be used for the test. Positive result will be indicated with easy to detect blue color, when it’s negative, no response will be observed.