MIPS Project Detail:
Company
Company Description:
3i Diagnostics provides technology that enables physicians to identify infectious microbes within an hour, while leaving them intact for further testing. Physicians can then prescribe the right life-saving medications quickly, which reduces the cost of care and prevents the overprescribing that hastens the spread of drug-resistant bacteria.
MIPS Project
Isolation of intact bacteria from blood for an RDT
Project #
5909
|
MIPS Round
59
|
Starting Date:
Feb 2017
MIPS Project Challenge:
The goal of this MIPS project is to develop a device that would permit the near-real time detection and identification of bacteria from a wide variety of sample matrices (e.g., whole blood).
“Physicians have told us that they are completely blind for at least 48 hours when trying to treat patients showing signs of an infection,” said Jim Janicki, President & CEO of 3i Diagnostics. “We realized that what we needed was an easy and inexpensive test that reports the specifics of an infection in less than an hour from the moment a sample is taken, so doctors can immediately prescribe the best treatment and take measures to keep antibiotic resistant infections from spreading.”
Project Scope:
Through this MIPS project, researchers seek to develop and optimize stage one of the microfluidic chip used to identify bacteria. The ability to selectively lyse non-bacterial cells has been demonstrated by researchers in the Maryland MEMS and Microfluidics Laboratory (MML). MML researchers plan to advance the development of this stage for commercialization by identifying the factors influencing selective lysis and building an optimized prototype.
Results:
Every hour, 50 people around the world die of sepsis. This medical emergency, driven by blood infection, attacks 30 million people each year—and can kill within 24 hours.
If physicians administer the right targeted antimicrobial drug to the patient within the first hour of sepsis onset, the survival rate is 80 percent. After ten hours, the survival rate plummets to about 30 percent—even in advanced healthcare systems. The proliferation of antimicrobial resistant strains is why the correct, targeted antimicrobial must be chosen from the start.
3i Diagnostics’ ultimate goal is to provide physicians and clinical researchers with detailed information on all strains of microbes found in human blood, sputum, and other bodily fluids. Physicians can then rapidly prescribe the right medications.
Research conducted at the University of Maryland provided the means to fabricate microfluidic elements that aid in isolating intact bacteria directly from blood. This project advances the results from this study by optimizing the operating and fabrication conditions of this component to aid in commercializing the diagnostic.
Principal Investigator:
Don
DeVoe
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Project Manager:
Rajesh
Krishnamurthy
Founder & Chief Technology Officer
Technologies:
Medical Instrumentation / Equipment