Fighting the world's deadliest infection with PAC-MAN and AI

Tuberculosis, caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is the world's deadliest single-agent infection, responsible for 1.23 million deaths in 2024, according to the World Health Organization. The bacterium's unique outer cell membrane is notoriously hard to penetrate, making few drugs, including antibiotics, effective in treating the disease. However, a research team led by the University of Massachusetts Amherst has developed a pair of techniques that can vastly speed the search for better tuberculosis drugs.