Early detection is an important factor in curbing the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Salt Lake City diagnostics company Great Basin Scientific just received a $5 million grant for its diagnostics platform meant to shave down CRE bacteria diagnostic time to within one hour.
The five-year grant, given as part of a collaboration with Brigham Young University, is meant to meet the goals of President Obama’s recent National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria.
CRE bacteria is known to dwell in longterm care facilities, and manifest itself in hospitalized patients. It has become resistant to most antibiotics – so the infections are very hard to treat, as evidenced by the recent UCLA CRE outbreak. It can lead to death in up to 50 percent of the cases, the CDC says.
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The Great Basin platform is meant to detect the bacteria directly from an unpurified clinical specimen. By avoiding sample purification and PCR testing, the diagnostic is meant to speed up the overall process of CRE detection.
This offers ‘”better clinical outcomes for those infected with CRE and other deadly superbugs – especially critical given the rising incidence of CRE outbreaks like those we saw recently in California,” Great Basin Chief Technology Officer Robert Jenison said.
This platform, Great Basin says, is meant to expand to work with other pathogens and their associated antibiotic-resistant genes.
