ACUSEP · Integrated whole blood acoustophoresis and homogeneous nucleic acid detection cartridge for rapid sepsis diagnostics

The objective of the ACUSEP research project is to develop an integrated, dry-reagent based disposable ready-to-use cartridge enabling rapid analysis of sepsis-causing organisms and eventual identification of antibiotic resistance directly from suspected blood samples. Sepsis causes annually up to 135 000 deaths in Europe and the early diagnosis is the key to improved survival. Identification of the antibiotic resistance is further beneficial to fast initiation of proper antimicrobial treatment. The rapid diagnostics of sepsis and identification of the causative pathogens can be achieved by research utilizing the recent technological advances; combining acoustophoretic collection of the pathogens from whole blood and photoluminescent dual-tag probe-pair detection technology with nucleic acid amplification providing excellent sensitivity and speed needed in acute diagnostics. The consortium is assembled to cover all the key research areas of the project. It consists of academic research organizations with significant technical and scientific experience of acoustophoretic target organism collection and purification, nucleic acid amplification, photoluminescent reporters and multiplexed homogeneous probe detection technologies. The project will proceed in phases, divided to both parallel and serial tasks in collaboration with SME and clinical partners involved, to perform a clinical evaluation of the developed prototype consumable assay cartridge and to initiate further exploitation activities. The specific objective in FP7 HEALTH-2010 addressed to is to “develop detection and analytical tools and technologies for diagnosis, monitoring and prognosis of diseases.