New strategies to isolate bacteria for early diagnosis of sepsis

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Measurement of the resistance or susceptibility of bacteria to antibiotics is a critical part of patient care, even more so given the rise in antibiotic resistance. Current techniques have changed little over the last 100 years and involve growing bacteria on a petri dish in the presence/absence of an antibiotic. The method requires a large number of viable organisms and can take over 48hours. If the bacteria fails to grow then they are susceptible to that drug. We have recently developed a new method of determining the antimicrobial susceptibility of cells. Our new test, called iFAST involves measuring the electrical phenotype of a few thousand bacteria after exposure to antibiotics. It reduces the time window for the test to as little as 2 hours. We are currently evaluating the diagnostic test with patient samples.