AstraDx, Inc., to Develop Rapid Diagnostic to Detect Neonatal Sepsis

Two BIDMC Pathology physicians who are scientific co-founders of AstraDx, Inc., are excited to share that Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) will award AstraDx $3M to demonstrate feasibility ahead of development for a low-cost instrument to detect neonatal sepsis. Ramy Arnaout, MD, PhD, Associate Medical Director of Clinical Microbiology, and James Kirby, MD, Medical Director of Clinical Microbiology, noted that the funding will help develop an arm-to-answer bacterial ID and phenotypic antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) directly from whole blood and produce results in neonates within 4 hours, instead of the current 48+ hours wait for a sepsis confirmation. “We believe this will be a major step forward in diagnostics that presumably has implications beyond neonates.”

Neonatal sepsis is a life-threatening response to bloodstream infections that occur in newborns fewer than 28 days old. The BARNARDS study estimated that 2.5 million neonates or infants in the first month of life die annually of sepsis, with the greatest burden in low- and middle-income countries. Due to their immature immune systems, newborns are particularly susceptible to infections. AstraDx is using advanced digital imaging and signal processing to reduce the time to ID and AST results from days to just hours after a blood draw in an effort to ensure newborns receive the right antibiotics in time. Read the press release.