Automating a platform for rapid clinical microbiology

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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.