Project description
A molecular diagnostic tool for sepsis
Sepsis is a life-threatening immune reaction to an infection, and if not treated promptly, it can cause death. Conventional diagnosis involves blood cultures, which are, however, laborious and time-consuming. To expedite identification of sepsis-causing bacteria, the EU-funded KlotoDx project has developed a disruptive technology based on the detection of ribosomal RNA and antibiotic resistance genes of pathogenic bacteria. The KlotoDx tool is fast, efficient and sensitive, and has the potential to address the medical challenge of sepsis, facilitating prompt and evidence-based decision on the right course of antibiotics treatment.
Objective
Sepsis is a common disease caused mostly by bacteria that affects about 30 M people each year worldwide. If not diagnosed on time and treated appropriately, it may be lethal in 30% of cases and the cost for the healthcare system if not detected within the first 24 hours can rise dramatically. Current diagnostic techniques used to detect bacteria in patients’ blood, and identify their antimicrobial resistances, are still based on blood culture which takes more than 1 day and has a very limited detection efficiency. Moirai Biodesign is currently engineering a whole new generation of RNA-based diagnostics using both our in-house and cutting-edge artificial intelligence algorithms to detect ribosomal RNA from bacterial agents and expressed bacterial genes associated to common antibiotic resistances and a patient’s blood sample. Our platform is a near-patient, fast, efficient and cost-effective solution for the early detection and characterization of sepsis-related bacteria which will improve patient’s treatment, avoid broad-spectrum antibiotics’ side-effects and dramatically reduce death rates. Our technology has been preliminary validated for the diagnosis of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia (APL) and KlotoDx’s main goal is to further adapt, validate and commercialize our disruptive diagnosis device for the identification of sepsis-causing bacteria and their antibiotic resistance genes. To achieve it and place our disruptive near-patient solution in the healthcare market, we envision a total investment of around €2.3 M and we plan to reach the 70% (around €1.6M) by applying for a Phase 2 within the H2020 SME-Instrument programme, once we perform the feasibility study during Phase 1. The increasing need for early sepsis diagnosis aand its characterization in terms of antibiotic resistance boosts KlotoDx’s opportunity to enter the primary care segment in a very disruptive manner.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- social sciencessociologydemographymortality
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriology
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugsantibiotics
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug resistanceantibiotic resistance
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
08028 BARCELONA
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.