SBIR Phase I: Rapid detection of blood-borne bacteria and determination of antibiotic resistance

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to speed up the diagnosis of bacteremia, the root cause of bacterial sepsis, a life-threatening condition wherein the body’s response to an infection injures its tissues and organs. Each hour of delay in administering an effective antibiotic is associated with an estimated 7.6% increase in mortality. This project can impact the treatment and currently expensive care of 1.7 million US patients (49 million worldwide) annually. Poorly suited antibiotics contribute to roughly 270,000 sepsis deaths each year in the United States. This project will advance a rapid (1 hour) identification of antibiotic susceptibility to enable switching from broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment to targeting the specific organism causing sepsis. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase-I project explores the feasibility of a fluorescence system to detect bacterial metabolic activity and determine antibiotic susceptibility in an hour, with the goal of achieving high sensitivity and specificity while lowering false positive or negative rates common in early results This project will advance the technology in three critical areas: (1) designing a disposable test cartridge that integrates the separation of bacteria from whole blood and introduction of fluorescent dye; (2) limiting background fluorescence to increase result accuracy; and (3) developing software that provides users with easily interpreted results and reliable process control.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.