Near-patient screening for the diagnosis of antibiotic resistant pathogens in hospital (NesDiag)

We will develop a portable device based on our centrifugal-microfluidic platform “LabDisk” for a comprehensive and automated point-of-care diagnosis. Parallel PCR testing provides laboratory grade results within less than an hour directly at the point of need.

Whether in medicine, biotechnology or agriculture the questions to be answered by rapid point-of-care analysis of diagnostic parameters are manifold. A highly relevant example is to prevent spreading of antibiotic resistant pathogens. In Germany, every year 400,000 to 900,000 people get infected with pathogens while receiving treatment in a hospital. Especially antibiotic resistant pathogens are difficult to fight. Tenthousands of patients die every year due to insufficient analytical means.

Screenings which take place right after a patient is brought to hospital help identify the persons infected with multi-resistant pathogens. These patients can then be isolated. Up to now, there are no satisfying technical solutions. The NesDiag project aims at developing a mobile analytical platform for the mentioned scenario. We will develop a portable device based on our centrifugal-microfluidic platform “LabDisk” for a comprehensive and automated point-of-care diagnosis. Parallel PCR testing provides laboratory grade results within less than an hour directly at the point of need.