Space technology harnessed to search out TB
4 October 2007
Technology developed for the Beagle 2 and Rosetta space missions could soon be harnessed to provide a cost-effective, rapid and accurate tool for diagnosing tuberculosis (TB).
The Wellcome Trust has awarded scientists at The Open University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) a £1.34 million Strategic Translation Award to develop a mass spectrometer capable of detecting TB in countries where resources are poor. The project was announced today at the Space 50 celebrations at Jodrell Bank.
TB, which is caused by the M. tuberculosis bacterium, is thought to kill two million people every year, primarily in the developing world. However, diagnosing TB in resource-poor settings relies mainly on the use of smear microscopy of sputum samples, a very labour-intensive process with low sensitivity.
Now, researchers led by Dr Geraint 'Taff' Morgan and Professor Colin Pillinger at The Open University together with Dr Liz Corbett from the LSHTM have received funding from the Wellcome Trust, the UK's largest medical research charity, to develop a portable mass spectrometer for diagnosing TB. The technology has been developed by the team behind the experiment that was to search for life on Mars during the Beagle 2 mission and the Ptolemy instrument currently on-board the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft.
"Smear microscopy is not a very accurate way of diagnosing TB and only detects a third of all positive cases," says Dr Morgan. "That means seven out of ten patients will effectively need to get worse before they can be diagnosed and treated. Clearly we need a new solution to this problem.
"The thing with developing technology for space missions is that it forces you to push boundaries and think outside the box when you're looking for new solutions to challenging problems. Many of the technical challenges we have overcome in designing our space instruments are the same as we face with this issue."
Launched in 2004, Rosetta will be the first spacecraft ever to conduct scientific measurements on the surface of a comet. The Rosetta Lander includes a shoe-box-sized gas chromatograph mass spectrometer (GC-MS), known as Ptolemy, which will analyse small pieces of the comet's nucleus to identify what it is made from and answer questions about the make up of the early solar system and whether comets may have been the source of water and the building blocks of life on Earth.
Dr Morgan believes that they can adapt Rosetta's technology to develop a GC-MS capable of detecting TB in sputum with greater sensitivity than smear microscopy and significantly quicker than the alternative culture methods. The process could be automated, meaning that skilled laboratory technicians would not be needed, and would not need to be carried out in a special laboratory, making the technology more widely available in the places that need it most.
"Chemicals have their own unique 'signature'," says Dr Morgan. "The bacterium that causes TB has a special coating and it is the pattern of chemicals in this coating that the mass spectrometer will be 'searching' for."
Dr Morgan will work with clinical partners Dr Liz Corbett and Dr Ruth McNerney from the LSHTM and Dr Conrad Bessant from the Bioinformatics Group at Cranfield University to optimise and validate the technique. In the second year of its development, the device will be trialled in the field, in Zimbabwe, where Dr Corbett is based.
"We urgently need an accurate and cost-effective method of diagnosing TB," says Dr Corbett, a Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow in Tropical Medicine. "At the moment, because diagnosis is not accurate, people with TB may have to be seen up to ten times before they can be started on TB treatment. They may be infectious throughout this period and, especially if they also have HIV, at considerable risk of dying before their diagnosis is made."
The research was welcomed by Dr Ted Bianco, Director of Technology Transfer at the Wellcome Trust.
"Dr Morgan and his colleagues have important technology to offer in the quest for improved detection of active TB, one of the highest priorities identified by clinicians on the front-line of this health emergency," says Dr Bianco. "Combining their expertise in mass spectrometry with the experience of doctors working in southern Africa is a potent mix of talent. If you can build instruments rugged enough to look for life elsewhere in the solar system, you should be able to crack the problem of detecting TB bacteria in the lung of a patient."
The Wellcome Trust funded development of the original mass spectrometer on the Beagle 2 mission to Mars. Professor Colin Pillinger, the driving force behind the mission, has praised the Trust's vision.
"The Wellcome Trust had the foresight to see that the miniaturisation process needed to develop a mass spectrometer capable of fitting onto a spacecraft could have applications far closer to home," says Professor Pillinger. "It is very rewarding to see such vision paying off in clinical research."
Contact
Craig Brierley
Media Officer
Wellcome Trust
T +44 (0)20 7611 7329
E
c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk
Notes for editors
1. The Wellcome Trust is the leading UK funder of translational research, seeking to maximise the impact of research innovation on health by facilitating the development of early-stage technologies to a point at which they are attractive for follow-on investment or partnering. Through Translation Awards, applied research projects are funded at an early stage where there is an unmet need in healthcare, a potential new solution, and a realistic expectation that the innovation will be developed further by the market. Strategic Translation Awards support research projects that are viewed as strategically important to the Wellcome Trust's mission.
2. The Open University, established in 1969, is the UK's only university dedicated to distance learning. It is open to people, places, methods and ideas. It promotes educational opportunity and social justice by providing high-quality university education to all who wish to realise their ambitions and fulfil their potential. Through academic research, pedagogic innovation and collaborative partnership, The Open University seeks to be a world leader in the design, content and delivery of supported open and distance learning. The University itself is ranked among the top UK universities for the quality of its teaching.
3. The Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute (PSSRI) is one of the highest profile research groups in the UK scientific community, having been instrumental in the development of the Beagle 2 and Cassini-Huygens missions. The group searches for answers to basic questions about our universe, studying all aspects of planetary and space science including the evolution of planets and moons in our solar system, near-Earth objects, the early solar system, interstellar dust particles, impact phenomena on all scales, and astrobiology. As well as a heritage in space exploration spanning Giotto (1986), which intercepted comet Halley, through Beagle 2 to Cassini-Huygens, PSSRI has involvement in ongoing missions including NASA's Genesis and Stardust missions and ESA's Rosetta mission, which will place hardware on the surface of a comet in 2014.
4. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine is Britain's national graduate school of public health and one of the world's leading postgraduate institutions for public health and tropical medicine. Part of the University of London, LSHTM is an internationally recognised centre of excellence in public health, international health and tropical medicine. It is one of the highest-rated research institutions in the UK.
5. Cranfield University's Bioinformatics Group is part of Cranfield Health, a recently established school that forms the hub of the University's activity in the healthcare arena. The school is founded on the University's renowned track record in healthcare management and education, diagnostics, novel technologies and environment-led health issues.
6. Space 50 – 4th October 2007 is the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik and the dawn of the space age. Space 50 celebrates the advances that have been made in astronomy, space science and technology over the last 50 years and the achievements of UK scientists and engineers in furthering our knowledge of the universe.