Pipeline / 02 · Infectious Disease

TB Rapid Diagnostic Platform

Next-generation tuberculosis diagnostic technology engineered for public health deployment in high-burden regions.

TUBERCULOSIS · WHY TIMING MATTERS The world’s deadliest infection is still often diagnosed too late. 1.25M deaths annually WORLDWIDE 10M new active cases PER YEAR ~40% of cases undiagnosed OR UNREPORTED MDR multi-drug resistance RISING IN HIGH-BURDEN REGIONS
TB is still the world's deadliest infectious disease. Multi-drug resistance is rising. A large fraction of cases remain undiagnosed until infection is already advanced — exactly when diagnosis is too late to change outcomes.
Premise

The problem we are solving.

Tuberculosis remains the world's deadliest infectious disease, killing more than 1.25 million people annually. Multi-drug resistance is rising. Conventional diagnostics are slow, require laboratory infrastructure, and miss latent infections that are the primary source of future outbreaks.

The diagnostic gap is not technical — sensitive assays exist. The gap is operational: getting accurate results in the hours and days that matter, in the clinics and communities where the disease lives, without depending on infrastructure that the affected regions do not have.

Approach

How we tackle it.

The TB Rapid Diagnostic program is built on three platform commitments: field-deployable form factor (point-of-care use, no lab dependency), host-response signal integration (combining pathogen detection with the patient's immune state to distinguish active vs latent infection), and GEDM-3DQ-assisted interpretation (the same decision intelligence layer used in the ICU program, applied to public-health triage at scale).

Initial deployment is planned through the partner network spanning South Africa, Lesotho, and Thailand — the same network that supports MACRO HRD's HIV and ferroptosis ICU programs, allowing diagnostic infrastructure to amortize across multiple disease programs rather than standing alone.

POINT-OF-CARE DECISION FLOW From sample to action, in a single visit. 01 Sample Sputum or blood collected in clinic 02 Detection Pathogen assay + host immune state 03 Integration Active vs latent stratification 04 Interpretation GEDM-3DQ adjusts for local epidemiology 05 Action Treatment path or follow-up triage Deployed through partner sites across South Africa, Lesotho, and Thailand.
From sputum sample to clinical decision within a single clinic visit. GEDM-3DQ integrates pathogen detection with host immune state to distinguish active infection from latent — the operational distinction that drives treatment choice.
Capabilities

What makes this real.

01
Point-of-care deployment
Designed for community clinics and mobile health units. No specialized laboratory infrastructure required for execution.
02
Active + latent stratification
Combines direct pathogen detection with host immune-state signals to distinguish active disease from latent infection — the operational distinction that drives treatment decisions.
03
AI-assisted interpretation
GEDM-3DQ provides decision support that adjusts for local epidemiology and patient context, rather than treating each test as an isolated binary.
04
Cross-program infrastructure
Deploys through the same partner-site network as the HIV functional cure and Lesotho SMPZ programs — cohort enrollment and follow-up infrastructure shared across initiatives.
Where It Connects

Part of an integrated platform.

01 · Platforms
Engineered Immune Cells Platform
CAR-like NK systems and γδ T cell therapies for adaptive, MHC-independent elimination of diseased cells.
02 · Infectious Disease
Pandemic Preparedness Platform
Antiviral therapeutic technologies and rapid-response treatment systems architected for the next unknown pathogen.
01 · Platforms
GEDM-3DQ Decision Engine
Gradient Equilibrium Decision Modeling in 3-Dimensional Quadrant — the AI spine of every MACRO HRD program.
04 · Infrastructure
Lesotho SMPZ
A sovereign Special Medical Practice Zone in Lesotho's eastern highlands — concentrating regulatory authority, GMP infrastructure, AI platforms, and CryoVault biobanking in a single jurisdiction.
⸻ Continue the platform

“A diagnostic that arrives after transmission has done its work is not a diagnostic. It is documentation.”

See all ventures → Engage with MACRO HRD