Blood poisoning bacteria identified faster
"Intopsens is our fourth Medical diagnostics project, and consolidates our competence in this area."
Five European research centres and two industry partners have joined in a new research consortium called Intopsens to combat the growing trend of multiresistant bacteria.
The consortium will develop a highly integrated optical sensor for point of care label-free identification of sepsis (blood poisoning) bacteria strains and their antibiotic resistance. Intopsens is managed by KTH, Wouter van der Wrjingaart, associate professor at the Microsystem Technology Lab, School of Electrical Engineering. The European Union supports the consortium during a three-year period with 2.6 MEuro through its Seventh Framework Programme.
Sepsis is a serious medical condition characterized by a whole-body inflammatory state caused by infection. The body develops this inflammatory response to micro-organisms in the blood, and the related layman's term is therefore blood poisoning. Sepsis can lead to septic shock, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and death, with an associated 7% rise in mortality for every hour delay in the administration of appropriate therapy.
– Evidently, a diagnostic platform is needed to quickly identify the presence and type of infectious micro-organism, as well as the type of antibiotic resistance genes that it carries to be able to proscribe the correct type of antimicrobial treatment. Ideally it should be a rapid system with little hands-on time so that it can be used at point of care (PoC) in an intensive care unit by paramedics and GPs, says Wouter van der Wijngaart, Intopsens’ project manager.
The Intopsens consortium will develop a bench-top readout system and disposable lab-on-chip cartridges for detection of the bacteria and their antibiotic susceptibility from whole blood using ultrasensitive photonic biosensors.
– Through miniaturisation and integration we will be able to provide the patients faster, and at lower cost, with specific antibiotic treatment. This test should help in reducing the growing trend of multiresistent bacteria, says Wouter van der Wijngaart.
KTH is involved in Intopsens through the Microsystems Technology lab at the School of Electrical Engineering, and the Cell Physics lab. These two labs are responsible for the sample preparation hardware – starting from whole blood, isolating and preconcentrating the bacteria, and amplification of the DNA – as well as microfluidic handling and the packaging of the disposable devices.
What does Intopsens’ research mean to Microsystems Technology lab?
– Intopsens is our fourth Medical diagnostics project, and consolidates our competence in this area.
The Intopsens consortium includes academic partners and technology development companies – each of these an expert/pioneer in a core aspect of this truly multidisciplinary scientific challenge. Further, the consortium includes technology end-users, which were chosen to anchor the work in real health care needs and also to create the basis for further development and exploitation.
The Consortium partners include:
- KTH - Royal Institute of Technology (project coordinator, SE)
- Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (ES)
- University of Aarhus, Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (DK)
- Universiteit Antwerpen (BE)
- Universiteit Gent (BE)
- Farfield Group Ltd (UK)
- Mobidiag Ltd (FI)