Cast-Companion Device

To develop a rapid diagnostic device to reduce the turnaround time for antimicrobial susceptibility testing reports needed in diagnosing resistant bacterial infections. Antimicrobial resistance is a global healthcare challenge, particularly in India where the current annual patient mortality is considerable due to mis-prescription of empiric antibiotics. A quick diagnostic test revealing the infecting bacteria's susceptibility to antibiotics will result in appropriate antibiotic prescription by doctors and mitigate the spread of resistant strains. The team proposes to fulfil this unmet meet by developing a device which reduces the turnaround time of susceptibility reports to 2-4 hours, which is a quantum leap from existing assays/devices which take 48-72 hours. Their device uses a proprietary rapid, culture-free technology to determine bacterial viability, based on quantifying bacterial nano-motion. Their device is intended to run on a fully automated consumable cassette, where we test multiple antibiotics on patient urine samples and determine the infecting pathogen's susceptibility to available antibiotics along with its resistance profile. Gradually, they intend to expand the application of our device to other sample types such as blood, sputum etc.