Researchers from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, GeneFluidics Inc. and the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have received a five-year, $3.2 million award from the National Institutes of Health to help rapidly diagnose and treat urinary tract infections the most common cause of hospital-associated infection in the United States.
The initiative brings together academic and industry leaders to further advance a groundbreaking technology initially developed by UCLA/VA researchers and corporate partner GeneFluidics that allows for rapid, species-specific detection of bacteria in human clinical fluid samples using a microfabricated electrochemical sensor array.
Joe Wang, director of the Biodesign Institutes Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors, will join the collaboration to improve the performance of the test by dramatically enhancing its sensitivity and speed. Wang has more than 25 years of success in biomedical applications and a strong track record of bringing similar sensors, used for glucose monitoring, to the market.
We are extremely fortunate to have Joe Wang and the Biodesign Institute as partners in this endeavor, said principal investigator Dr. David Haake, professor of medicine at UCLA and an infectious diseases specialist at the VA. Biodesigns expertise will make it possible to quickly bring the electrochemical sensor to clinical reality. Working together, we hope to fundamentally change the way antibiotics are selected for the treatment of infectious diseases.
The goal of our collaborative effort is to develop all of the technical components to produce a biosensor that can rapidly and reliably identify a bacteria and its spectrum of antibiotic susceptibility to aid point-of-care diagnostics for the clinic, Wang said.
Industrial partner GeneFluidics will help deliver a custom-built, fully functional prot
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| Contact: Amy Albin aalbin@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-8672 University of California - Los Angeles Source:Eurekalert |