Automated sepsis diagnostic for fast testing in clinical laboratories

Molzym, in collaboration with Fraunhofer IZI-BB, have developed a new analytical platform called AutoSepT, which performs fast pathogen identification directly from specimens in less than 5 hours.

Sepsis is a life-threatening disease and its diagnosis requires a fast identification of the infectious pathogen, as every hour without appropriate treatment increases the risk of mortality by up to 7%. Conventional diagnostic procedures such as blood culture are often not fast enough or the culture remains negative due to growth inhibition of the pathogens caused by prior antibiotic administration.

“With AutoSepT, we have developed an innovative walk-away system for the fast and precise culture-independent identification of sepsis-causing pathogens. This new approach offers the opportunity of a fast diagnosis in 4 to 5 hours, in combination with the possibility to identify rare, non-cultivable and inhibited pathogens. Hence, the needs of hospitals and private laboratories for a fast and broad-range solution is met” says project leader Dr. Michael Lustig.

AutoSepT will identify the most frequent sepsis-causing pathogens in just a few hours. In addition, rare and non-cultivable pathogens can be detected based on broad-range 16S Sanger sequencing.

The project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the federal state of Brandenburg (ILB).

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