Introduction
As infectious diseases continue to take their toll around the world, there is an urgent need for rapid, highly sensitive, and specific clinical diagnostics that are easy to use, cost-effective, and can diagnose individuals infected with pathogens or exposed to toxins.
The ability to diagnose pre-symptomatic, symptomatic, or nonspecific symptomatic individuals is essential for public health laboratories, hospital-based clinical laboratories, and point-of-care settings so that appropriate therapy can be initiated. Medical diagnostics that will rapidly distinguish whether an individual is infected by a biological threat agent or a common pathogen that causes similar symptoms are a high priority, as are diagnostic tools to determine drug sensitivities and detect a broad range of infectious agents in clinical specimens.
NIAID supports basic and applied research to prevent, diagnose, and treat infectious and immune-mediated illness. Biotechnology is being applied to develop cost-effective, sensitive, and specific tests that can be used in field situations in the developing world. New diagnostics will allow for better determinations of disease distribution and spread as well as the detection of drug-resistant pathogens.
To develop improved diagnostics for infectious diseases, NIAID partners with industry, nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and other federal agencies.
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