Tuberculosis has been in the news quite a bit recently, both due to a rise in incidence and a shortage of drugs. As the threat of this dangerous disease grows worldwide, researchers continue look for new treatments and methods of fighting back. In a paper published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, researchers have been working to develop a bioluminescence-based mouse model of tuberculosis to assess antibiotic efficacy against M. tuberculosis in vivo. According to the paper, “in vivo testing is an absolute requirement for pre-clinical evaluation of new drug and vaccine candidates before these can advance along the development pipeline. “ The problem with in vivo experimentation is that is both costly and time-consuming. One solution to this issue explored in the paper is the use of Bioluminescence. Researchers “demonstrate the in vivo visualization of the improved FFlucRT reporter strain in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice, and provide evidence that this system could be applied to high-throughput in vivo testing of drug efficacy.” Read the full paper here.