A highly integrated optical sensor for point of care label free identification of pathogenic bacteria strains and their antibiotic resistance. (InTopSens) (InTopSens)

InTopSens aims to design fast photonic label-free smart biosensors with detection limits below 1 pg/mm2, and integrate multiple biosensors on a disposable label-free photonic biochip capable of identifying and determining antibiotic resistance of bacteria causing sepsis. Severe sepsis or septic shock is characterized by multi-organ dysfunction, failure and finally death. In the EU, sepsis is estimated to cause a loss of up to 146,000 lives every year and up to EUR 7.6 billion in patient health care costs. The most important intervention is rapid diagnosis followed by appropriate antibiotic treatment. However, the currently available 'rapid' assays are laboratory based with a total assay time of up to 12 hours, e.g. PCR. Hence, more often than not, antibiotic treatment has to be instituted empirically before test results arrive and this non-targeted, and quite often inappropriate, antibiotic use has led to multidrug resistance amongst bacteria including those causing sepsis. We intend to develop the InTopSens device into a modular assay for sepsis to detect the causative pathogen and also profile its antibiotic resistance at the patient's bed-side in Emergency/Intensive Care Units in hospitals. Upon introduction of a large drop of blood (~ 50 µl) onto the chip, presence of bacteria and identification to the genus/species level will be obtained within 5-10 mins, while the antibiotic resistance profile of the bacterial pathogen will be available within 30 mins. Some 120 sensing areas/datapoints are needed to identify this profile and as such due to the very high integration up to 5 assays can be integrated onto a 1cm2 chip of the same bacteria for higher sensitivity and selectivity or for other bacteria. A final prototype consisting of a packaged biochip will be validated both preclinically and clinically to assess the potential of this sepsis assay in preventing/reducing inappropriate antibiotic therapy and mortality in sepsis patients.

Keywords:ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE, SENSORS, SEPSIS

Disciplines:Microbiology, Systems biology, Laboratory medicine

Project type:Collaboration project