Market Assessment application: market assessment of a rapid, reagent-free technology for identification of antibiotic-resistant bacteria by ATR-FTIR spectroscvopy

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The objective of this NSERC-I2I market assessment application is to investigate the market potential of MIR Direct, a new and rapid technology developed at McGill University for bacteria identification in hospital clinical microbiology laboratories. MIR Direct employs "whole-organism fingerprinting" by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy to identify bacterial species. Furthermore, this technology has the capability to discriminate between antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-susceptible strains of the same bacterial species, which is critically important for the timely diagnosis of infections caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), and the appropriate use of antibiotics. Advantages of the MIR Direct technology include: (i) minimal sample preparation, (ii) reagent-free analysis, (iii) simple (one-step), universally applicable analysis protocol, (iv) fast turnaround time (1-2 min),and (v) low cost per test. Accordingly, a market assessment study will be undertaken to guide the McGill technology transfer office in determining the commercialization strategy for this promising new bacteria identification technology.