MicroPhage wins ‘R&D Magazine 100 Award’ for world’s first test designed to rapidly identify bacterial infections and antibiotic susceptibility
July 29th, 2010Business Wire, July 27, 2010
Company setting new standard for fighting hospital acquired
infections and reducing bacterial resistance
LONGMONT, Colo. — MicroPhage
announced today that it has received the R&D Magazine 100 Award in
Bioscience for its Microphage MRSA/MSSA Blood Culture Test.
The first of MicroPhages instrument-free, rapid tests is based on the
Companys patented Bacteriophage Amplification platform
technology.
The R&D Magazine 100 Awards are widely recognized as the Oscars of
Innovation, identifying and celebrating the top bioscience and other
products of the year. The R&D Magazine 100 Awards span industry,
academia, and government-sponsored research.
The Companys initial commercial productMicrophage MRSA/MSSA Blood
Culture Testwhich has received regulatory clearance (CE Mark) to
be sold in Europe, is designed to rapidly identify Staphylococcus
aureus (staph) bacteria as well as determine methicillin
resistance (MRSA) or susceptibility (MSSA) in suspected
cases of bacteremiabacteria in the bloodin as little as five hours.
Todays standard of care for determining these types of infections takes
up to three days for test-results, which can result in ineffective
treatment, bacterial resistance, and death.
This major award objectively recognizes that our technology represents
a new era for the effective and cost-effective diagnosis of
bacterial infections, said MicroPhages Vice President of Research and
Development, Drew Smith. These infections are a difficult
challenge, afflicting millions of patients every year, and costing
billions of dollars in health care expenses. This award bears strong
testimony that our initial test is an innovative benchmark in bacterial
identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing, and we are
delighted to receive it.
The MicroPhage MRSA/MSSA Blood Culture Test requires no
instrumentation and begins with two small reaction tubes for incubating
blood culture specimens. After only five hours, the incubated samples
are added to a dual dipstick-like detector, which looks much like a home
pregnancy test. One part of the test determines if the blood sample is
infected with S. aureus bacteria and the other shows whether it
is susceptible or resistant to methicillin-type antibiotics. Delivering
this diagnostic information quickly enables physicians to determine more
effective antibiotic therapy. Better therapy will shorten hospital
stays, lower health care costs and, ultimately, save lives. S. aureus
bacteria typically has a mortality rate of >20 percent.
About MicroPhages Bacteriophage Amplification Platform
Building on original research licensed from the Colorado School of
Mines, MicroPhage has adapted Bacteriophage Amplification, a natural
biologic process, for identifying bacterial infections. Bacteriophage are
harmless bacteria-specific viruses that multiply aggressively when
exposed to target bacteria. In the detection process, reaction of the
bacteriophage proteins on the MicroPhage detector indicates that the
sample is positive for the bacteria. For susceptibility analysis, the
organism in the sample is simultaneously challenged with an antibiotic.
Because bacteriophage depend on host bacteria for amplification, any
compound that kills or inhibits the microbes growth will stop phage
amplification
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