The Help Stop TB research team is making progress on the analysis of current results.
Background
The Help Stop TB project was created to study the sheath of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB. Knowing more about this sheath could help scientists better understand how the bacterium protects itself, which could in turn assist in the ongoing search for better treatments.
In October 2020, the World Health Organization released the most recent global statistics on TB, including the following:
- In 2019, an estimated 10 million people contracted TB.
- 1.4 million people died from TB in 2019.
- TB remains one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide, and the leading cause from a single infectious agent (above HIV/AIDS).
The team is progressing the analysis of current results
The team is continuously checking the results, and recently received a new, more powerful laptop to better analyze the data. Few machine learning methods are being tested to pre-optimize the conditions for validation assays downstream of resulting predictions.
Due to his expertise on the topic, research member Connor McGee was invited to give a talk on machine learning.
Current status of work units
- In progress: 21 batches (655 work units)
- Completed: 24,397 batches
42 batches in the last 30 days
Average of 1.4 batches per day
Note: For this particular project, the researchers often need to analyze the batches we send back to them before they can build more work units. This can sometimes lead to an intermittent work unit supply.
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