Sepsis is the tenth-leading cause of death in the United States and the second-leading cause of death in the intensive care unit (ICU). Sepsis kills over 215,000 Americans each year - more than breast cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer combined. Rapid identification and determination of antibiotic susceptibility is critical fo effective treatment of infected patients. Phase I successfully demonstrated the iSense system's ability to discriminate bacterial species and strain 4-fold faster than legacy methods identify species alone. In Phase I iSense also successfully demonstrated the ability to determine strain-specific susceptibility to antibiotic therapy more than 1 day faster than conventional practice. Phase II aims address application to clinical human specimens along with development of instruments and media appropriate for commercial use. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop and commercially deploy an automated blood culture system that can diagnose sepsis, identify the species and strain of the infecting organism, and determine antibiotic susceptibility all in less than 24 hours from the lab's receipt of primary specimen.

Public Health Relevance

Sepsis kills over 215,000 Americans each year - more than breast cancer, lung cancer, and prostate cancer combined. Rapid identification and determination of antibiotic susceptibility is critical for effective treatment of infected patients The ultimate goal of this research is to develop and an automated system that returns results in less than 24 hours, 3 times faster than current practices.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Type
Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR) - Phase II (R44)
Project #
2R44AI094781-02
Application #
8522889
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-IDM-V (12))
Program Officer
Ritchie, Alec
Project Start
2012-03-15
Project End
2015-02-28
Budget Start
2013-03-01
Budget End
2014-02-28
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$994,871
Indirect Cost
Name
Isense, LLC
Department
Type
DUNS #
827877486
City
West Palm Beach
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
33401
Lim, Sung H; Mix, Samantha; Anikst, Victoria et al. (2016) Bacterial culture detection and identification in blood agar plates with an optoelectronic nose. Analyst 141:918-25
Lim, Sung H; Mix, Samantha; Xu, Zeyu et al. (2014) Colorimetric sensor array allows fast detection and simultaneous identification of sepsis-causing bacteria in spiked blood culture. J Clin Microbiol 52:592-8