PRECISION MEMBRANES, LLC — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: NIAID

Description

AbstractPrecision MembranesOverpeople died inin the U Salone due to septicemiaa blood stream infection capable of eliciting the life threatening condition known as sepsisRapid identification and effective treatment of septicemia are essential to prevent severe sepsis and overcome the alarming mortality rates observed todayCurrent diagnostics require a minimumhour blood culture prior to final identification of bacteria and resistance profilesReducing the time to diagnosis would offer significant benefits to patients while lowering mortality ratesMolecular identification techniques are capable of analyzing the small quantities of bacteria that would be found in an infected patient s blood samplebut the presence of billions of blood cells prevents direct analysisBacteria cells must first be purified and concentratedIn this SBIR Phase I proposalPrecision Membranes seeks to evaluate the performance of surface modified magnetic nanoparticles as a platform for affinity based separation of bacteria from blood with the long term goal of developing an automated sample preparation toolTo evaluate the feasibility of this approachPrecision Membranes aims to selectively capture gram positive and gram negative bacteria in whole blood and to concentrate bacteria by efficient release from capture media into a small volumeUpon achievingrecovery of bacteria in less thanminutesa final proof of concept test will be conducted to demonstrate sensitivity down toCFU mLThis research may enable the future development of a rapid sample preparation platform that could integrate with technology already rolled out to a large percentage of hospitalsThis would enable healthcare providers to identify and treat a higher percentage of patients with septicemia before severe symptoms are manifestEarlier treatment would reduce the frequency of sepsisdecrease days in hospital for infected patientsand ultimately diminish septicemia mortality rates Project NarrativePrecision MembranesThis SBIR Phase I research proposal seeks to evaluate affinity capture technology with the ability to reduce turnaround times for diagnosis of bloodstream infectionsor septicemiato less than two hoursBy informing treatment earlierthis technology could slow the development of antibiotic resistant bacteriaincrease the speed of patientsrecoveryprevent deadly sepsisand thereby reduce mortality rates and overall cost of healthcare