Abstract
Bloodstream infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria is a global health problem. The total number of deaths per year related to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is predicted to overcome in 2050 those caused by cancer today, creating economic costs of about 100 billion dollar. Within the EU, Italy is most affected with 30% of the 33'000 reported deaths in the EU per year. AMR continues to increase, for instance by the constant over-use of antibiotics to treat patients. Unnecessary, empirical and broad spectrum prescriptions are due to uncertainty rather than a diagnosed pathogenic infection. A major problem is that the time-to-result periods of state-of-the-art methods for bacteria and antibiotic resistance detections exceed the time-to-treatment window up to days, as the concentration of bacteria in blood is below the limit of detection. This requires bacteria culture for hours to days pre-analysis. In this project, an electroanalytical Point-Of-Care (POC) platform for the detection of model living bacterial cells and antibiotic resistance is developed. The electrochemical detection is based on the bacterial metabolism, which has the potential to reduce the detection time compared to optical measurements. The electrochemical component of the POC platform is fabricated by using inkjet printing. Bacteria are immobilized by a specific bacteria capturing unit near the sensor surface. A microfluidic module enables automation while a heating module enables measuring at optimized temperature. Antibiotic resistance will be detected by incubation of bacterial cells in presence of antibiotics and subsequent detection. The results are compared with those obtained by reference methods.
Project details
Unibo Team Leader: Andreas Stephan Lesch
Unibo involved Department/s:
Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale "Toso Montanari"
Coordinator:
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM - Università di Bologna(Italy)
Total Eu Contribution: Euro (EUR) 199.944,00
Total Unibo Contribution: Euro (EUR) 82.393,00
Project Duration in months: 24
Start Date:
28/09/2023
End Date:
28/02/2026
