TLab and testing

T lab uses mainly fluorescence microscopy with targeted fluorescent dyes attached to specific antibodies to the organisms in question - they don't rely on host antibodies - so its a better approach than western blots / immunoblots etc

originally they specialised in bartonella as it was co-founded by the "Bart Guru" Dr M
but has since added borrelia and babesia odecoilei by the same method

the tests are good - the only time a person would be infected and come back negative is if there was no live target pathogens or even fragments of target pathogen DNA in the sample.
this is much less likely to happen vs an indirect test looking for host antibodies - like the western blot etc

i think the issue may be access - it was declared as "research use only"
i think this means its only accessible through Dr M directly - or if your doctor is working with Dr M - or that was the situation when i last checked

i cant recall if they have produced an actual validation study for their technique - but i think they have published the primers / dyes etc that they use

there are people on the breaking down bartonella facebook page that were working with him and testing at T lab - you can see some of their test results there

Galaxy is the other option for high end tests - good people there - Prof Ed Breischwerdt - the researcher that has dedicated his entire career to unpicking bartonella infections and a person of obvious high integrity is involved - and i spoke to the CEO a while back - who was very knowledgeable, active in lyme advocacy work and gracious enough to make time for me
they use 3 separate blood draws, then culture enrichment and then digital droplet PCR to get over the sensitivity issue in chronic bartonella infections - its probably the best bart test out there - and they have published a validation study.

if you let me know what are the objectives of testing / retesting - i may be able to advise further

i think the way their immunofluorescence test works is they have selected a targeted dye to that is reactive to a bit of RNA that is shared by all of the members of the genus they are interested in

eg the borrelia one should detect all species of borrelia - but it will not differentiate between them

you would need some form of PCR test for that - i think the Galaxy one does this

Igenex has also developed multispecies immunoblots for
bartonella, babesia and borrelia

these are still indirect tests - but they use many more antigens from different species - increasing the detection rate and also giving information on species

i am not sure how useful that is though - as treatments for each all species in a genus are usually the same

I messaged Tlab's customer support about prices and received this response:

"Thank you for your interest in TLab test offerings. Provided below is a list of our current test offerings and prices as well as a brief explanation of how you can proceed with getting tested:


BNR - High Resolution Blood Smear Imaging test (Biofilms, NETs, Red Blood Cell Inclusions, blood - $490)


Bartonella henselae 23s rRNA FISH Molecular Imaging test (blood - $695 | skin - $1,275)

Borrelia burgdorferi OspA mRNA FISH Molecular Imaging test (blood - $695 | skin - $1,275)

Borrelia genus 23s rRNA FISH Molecular Imaging test (blood - $695 | skin - $1,275)

Babesia odocoilei 18s rRNA FISH Molecular Imaging test (blood - $695 | skin - $1,275)

Babesia genus 18s rRNA FISH Molecular Imaging test (blood - $695 | skin - $1,275)


Nerve Fiber Demyelination Assay and EDNF counts (CIDP test, skin - $2,485)



Please note a standard shipping charge of $65 will be added to all blood specimens, and a standard shipping charge of $195 will be added to all skin specimens."


I wanted to post this in case anybody in the future comes here searching for info about the tests they offer and the prices.

Personally, I like the idea of direct detection tests, but paying for all their tests to get the most comprehensive coverage possible would cost 3500$ This is crazy cost prohibitive to me. It's hard to imagine many chronically ill people who already struggle financially being able to afford this. Hopefully in the future they can find a way to reduce their prices or can work with insurances to cover some or all of it.