Bacterial Eavesdropping for Fast Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing

Introduction

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health problem, endangering millions of lives. Rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST) plays a crucial role in determining the type and concentration of antibiotics required to inhibit the growth of a pathogen.

Current Challenges

However, the major issue with the current ASTs is the slow diagnostics, ranging from 24 hours to a few days. This delay leads to mis-prescriptions and/or over-prescriptions, thus severely impacting treatment outcomes.

SoundCell Technology

At SoundCell, we developed SoundCell technology, a breakthrough technique that reduces the AST time from a few days to less than 1 hour. It is a graphene-based biosensor technology that uses nanomechanical vibrations of ultrathin micron-sized graphene drums to detect the motion of a single bacterium.

Motion Detection

We demonstrated that the motion of alive and dead bacteria is different when adhered to the graphene sensors, and we can correlate such changes to antibiotic susceptibility.

Project Goals

During the EICT, we will mature SoundCell technology into a high-throughput, cost-effective AST. Our goals include:

1. Developing high-volume manufacturing methods.
2. Engineering a user-friendly low-cost prototype readout system.
3. Validating our AST prototype in 2 clinical labs through testing of a variety of pathogenic clinical isolates.
4. Benchmarking the speed and sensitivity of our platform against other AST techniques.
5. Establishing our exploitation strategy and regulatory roadmap.
6. Developing and executing the business model.
7. Engaging stakeholders.

Expected Outcomes

SoundCell technology will directly lower healthcare expenses by shortening hospital stays with fewer lab and diagnostic tests. It will also improve clinical outcomes for patients by reducing recovery time, secondary complications, and mortality.

Intellectual Property

We have filed 2 patent applications and envision another 4 patents over the project duration.

Financial Forecast

By 2030, we forecast revenues of 17 million and employment for up to 60 personnel.