Gene-reading software to cut TB diagnosis from months to minutes

A DOCTOR in Mumbai, India, puts a spit sample into a handheld device. The doctor checks the results to see exactly what kind of drug-resistant tuberculosis the person has, and the precise combination of drugs needed to treat it. "If you can identify drug-resistant TB in less than a day, you will massively improve treatment" This is the goal of CRyPTIC, a global project run by a team at the University of Oxford. It aims to speed up the diagnosis and treatment of drug-resistant TB, cutting the wait from months to days, or even minutes. The idea is that the software will prescribe the right medication for TB just by looking at its genome.