Multiparameter Assay for Profiling Susceptibility (MAPS)

抗菌素耐药性（AMR）是微生物对抗菌素治疗产生耐药性的能力。例如，细菌可以对抗生素药物产生耐药性，使该药物在治疗和控制感染方面无效。失去有效的抗生素将对我们的生活产生重大影响，不仅会增加发生严重感染的机会，还会增加与医疗程序相关的风险。最近的奥尼尔评论预测：“如果我们不采取行动，我们将看到一个几乎不可想象的场景，抗生素不再起作用，我们将被扔回医学的黑暗时代。”虽然细菌中的抗生素耐药性会随着时间的推移自然发生，但抗生素的滥用和过度使用正在加速这一进程。例如，扁桃体炎等许多感染主要是病毒感染（80%），因此不能用抗生素治疗，但仍开具抗生素处方。一个显而易见的解决办法是引进新药。然而，这不仅非常昂贵，而且对任何新药产生耐药性也是不可避免的。抗生素耐药性问题的一个有希望和可持续的解决办法是采用诊断测试，不仅可以确认细菌感染，还可以确定治疗感染的最佳抗生素。该项目的目的是开发一种诊断方法，确保在正确的时间开出正确的药物。这项名为MAPS的技术是基于硅光子学的。虽然最初是为通信行业开发的，但我们已经证明，同样的技术可以用于监测生物，包括细菌和蛋白质，具有非常高的灵敏度。我们将利用这项技术来创建一种诊断方法，以确定细菌的类型和感染的严重程度，耐药性机制的存在以及最有希望的治疗抗生素。我们将与临床和工业合作伙伴合作，展示和验证治疗尿路感染的技术，并确定将其推向市场的途径。

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of microbes to evolve resistance against an antimicrobial treatment. For example, a bacterium can develop resistance to an antibiotic medicine, rendering that medicine ineffective in treating and containing the infection. The loss of effective antibiotics will have a significant impact on our lives, not only increasing the chances of developing a serious infection but also increasing the risk associated with medical procedures. The recent O'Neill review predicts "If we fail to act, we are looking at an almost unthinkable scenario where antibiotics no longer work and we are cast back into the dark ages of medicine".While AMR in bacteria occurs naturally over time, the misuse and overuse of antibiotics is accelerating this process. For example, many infections such as tonsillitis are predominantly (80%) viral and can thus not be treated with antibiotics, yet antibiotics are still prescribed. An obvious solution is to introduce new drugs. However, this is not only very costly but it is also inevitable that resistance to any new medicine will develop. A promising and sustainable solution to the AMR problem is the introduction of diagnostic tests that not only confirm a bacterial infection but also identify the best antibiotic for treating the infection. The aim of this project is to develop a diagnostic that will ensure the right drugs are prescribed at the right time. The technology, called MAPS, is based on silicon photonics. Although developed originally for use in the communications industry, we have shown that this same technology can be used to monitor biology, including bacteria and proteins, with very high sensitivity. We will exploit this technology to create a diagnostic that will identify the type of bacterium and severity of infection, the presence of resistance mechanisms and the most promising antibiotic for treatment. Working with clinical and industrial collaborators, we will demonstrate and validate the technology for the treatment of urinary tract infections and determine a route for taking it to the market.