Automating a platform for rapid clinical microbiology

该公司开发了一种测试方法，使医院微生物实验室能够快速检测血液中的细菌和真菌感染。目前的方法通常需要1-3天来判断IFA血样是阳性的，如果是阴性的则需要5天的时间来报告。新的测试在24小时内提供阳性和阴性结果，这有助于节省医院费用和不必要的抗生素使用，并将有助于困难的诊断。然而，这项测试需要训练有素的科学家3个小时才能完成。这一手动要求使得忙碌的实验室更难将新的测试纳入其日常工作流程中。SMART项目旨在为自动化版本的测试显示概念证明。在仪器上运行测试需要开发新的方法来将微生物与血液污染物分离，这是该项目中的一个关键风险因素。最终的自动化方法将把实验室工作人员所需的动手时间减少到几分钟左右，并允许每天进行更多的测试，提高准确性。医院微生物学家表示，让实验室更容易进行测试将使采用的可能性更大，预计这将显着促进英国和全球的销售。如果智能概念验证成功，公司打算完成自动检测产品的开发和推出，并将这种自动化应用于未来的产品。

The Company has developed a test allowing the hospital microbiology laboratory to rapidlydetect bacterial and fungal infections in blood. Current methods usually take 1-3 days to tell ifa blood specimen is positive and 5 days to report if it is negative. The new test provides bothpositive and negative results in 24 hours which helps to save hospital costs and unnecessaryantibiotic use and will assist in difficult diagnoses. However the test takes 3 hours for atrained scientist to perform. This manual requirement makes it harder for a busy lab to fit thenew test into its daily workflowThe SMART project is intended to show proof of concept for an automated version of the test.Running the test on an instrument requires development of new methods for separating microorganismsfrom blood contaminants and this is a key risk factor in the project. It is intendedthat the final automated method will reduce the amount of hands on time required by lab staffto a matter of minutes and allow higher numbers of tests to be run per day with improvedaccuracy. Hospital microbiologists have said that making the test easier for the lab to run willmake adoption much more likely and this is expected to boost sales significantly in the UKand worldwide. If the SMART proof of concept is successful the Company intends tocomplete development and launch the automated detection product as well as apply thisautomation to future products.