Fast & Cheap Tuberculosis Diagnosis • Mireille Kamariza

(CEO and Founder of OliLux || CA USA)

“I’m working on a new way to diagnose tuberculosis fast, cheap, and without the need of specialized equipment. We’re using a molecule that can detect tuberculosis cells because of the specific building blocks it’s made of — it changes color when it senses a tuberculosis cell in a sample. This color change can be detected with cheap microscopes, so all the testing facility needs is a microscope, then we ship the reactant — it’s super simple. Tuberculosis is one of the most infectious killers globally, but it’s especially prevalent and endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. Growing up in Burundi, I’ve always known about the importance of trying to treat infectious diseases. I’ve been working on tuberculosis research for around six years now.

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Throughout my journey developing this technology I’ve had to switch skill sets many times. First it was mostly basic biology, which I had done a lot of during undergrad, so I felt quite comfortable. But as my project took off, we were doing a clinical study involving human patients, which involved flying to a different country — that was a big learning process. Now I’m starting a company with my technology, which brings up the business aspect, a whole new skillset again. It’s daunting to move into these different stages, but it’s also very exciting.”