Project description
A rapid test for bacterial sensitivity against antibiotics
To efficiently tackle clinical bacteria isolates with antibiotics, a disk diffusion assay is usually employed, which determines the minimum inhibitory concentration. However, this approach cannot distinguish between bactericidal drugs and those that only stop the growth of bacteria. Given that bacteria can develop tolerance to antibiotic treatment, there is a need for an assay to measure the survival of bacteria under antibiotics. Towards this goal, the EU-funded SurviDisk project proposes to develop a single easy-to-use low-cost assay on a disk and validate it against clinical isolates. Routine implementation of SurviDisk is expected to optimise antibiotic treatment and reduce hospitalisation times.
Objective
This proposal aims to develop a low-cost diagnostic tool (SurviDisk) that can evaluate the killing efficacy of antibiotic treatments on bacterial strains isolated from patients. Current methods, such as the disk diffusion assay, only evaluate the ability of antibiotics to arrest the growth of bacteria. The size of the inhibition zone in the disk diffusion assay indicates the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) i.e. the resistance level of the strain, but cannot distinguish between a cidal drug from an antibiotic that only stops the growth of bacteria without killing. It is today recognized that antibiotics that are able to kill bacteria are crucial for hard to treat infections that persist for many days despite treatment. However, bacterial strains can evolve to become tolerant and avoid killing by antibiotics. This tolerance is distinct from resistance, and only allows the strains to survive under antibiotic treatments but does not increase their MIC. The enhanced survival of these strains under antibiotics is not detected in the current antibiotic susceptibility tests done in hospitals. In the parent ERC-CoG grant, we have recently shown that measuring the survival of clinical strains isolated from life-threatening bloodstream infections enables to choose better treatments. Based on these results, we propose to develop a single disk easy-to-use low-cost assay for a semi-quantitative measurement of survival of bacteria under antibiotics, the Survidisk. We will develop the Survidisk prototype and evaluate its efficacy at predicting the treatment outcome on a retrospect analysis of a collection of clinical strains. Contacts for the production and commercialization by companies selling disk diffusion assays will be developed. We expect that the routine use of the SurviDisk for guiding antibiotic therapy in persistent infections should greatly treatment outcome, reducing death rates and shortening significantly hospitalization duration.
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. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
- natural sciences biological sciences microbiology bacteriology
- medical and health sciences basic medicine pharmacology and pharmacy pharmaceutical drugs antibiotics
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
H2020-EU.1.1. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept Grant
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2020-PoC
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
91904 JERUSALEM
Israel
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.