Pathogen detection

Toward rapid multiplexed pathogens complete identification

 Respiratory syndromes

Acute respiratory tract infections are the most widespread type of severe infections in adults and children and are significant cause of disease in immunocompromised patients and patients under reanimation phase in the hospital environment. The infection potential severity imposes then a rapid and complete diagnostic. Respiratory syndromes are characterized by a large number of involved infectious agents (bacteria, viruses or fungi). The multiplicity of aetiology and the lack of specificity of the pathogens with patients’ syndrome require a high number of tests to be done or to use a multiplexed approach. Both the detection and characterization (virulence and resistance) of involved pathogens is a crucial step for patient care.

 Gastroenteric infections

With about two million deaths annually, infectious gastroenteritis is ranked third in the list of most common causes of morbidity and mortality by infectious diseases worldwide by the World Health Organization (2009). The pathogens causing infectious gastroenteritis include a wide variety of bacteria, parasites and viruses. In approximately half of all suspected cases the causal agent remains unidentified due to the lack of method allowing a convenient, complete and rapid screening.

For both applications, AXO Science is currently developing a flexible, robust, simple and affordable diagnostic device providing crucial information to the clinician. Based on genetic knowledge of pathogens, the multiplexed analytical devices will provide within 4 hours a complete diagnostic, characterizing the pathogen identity, and its resistance factors in case of bacterial infection. The challenging aim is to replace classical Petri dishes with a future standard sample-to-result solution for clinician.