Country: United States
What infection type does your test focus on? Urinary Tract Infection
What does your test detect? Antibiotic Susceptibility Pattern, ESBLs.
About the Team:
BioAmp Diagnostics is a startup company based in the Bay Area. We are an interdisciplinary team of two technical Founders and a group of business, medical, and scientific advisors. Our expertise is in microbiology, molecular biology, chemistry, immunology, diagnostics, and engineering.
We are developing point-of-care tests that will enable medical providers to immediately select the right antimicrobial agent for treatment of bacterial infections. Our current focus is urinary tract infections (UTIs)—one of the most common bacterial infections worldwide, with roughly 250M UTIs diagnosed annually. Incorrect antibiotic prescribing for patients who have a severe UTI with infection of the kidneys (pyelonephritis) places the patient at increased risk for progressive infection into the bloodstream. Because of this life-threatening risk, pyelonephritis is our first target infection.
Our current test detects resistance biomarkers (ß-lactamases, ESBLs), whose presence indicates that the bacterium causing infection is resistant to typical first-line antibiotics that are used to treat patients suspected of having pyelonephritis. Our test will inform a medical provider in real-time if the patient is suffering from an infection caused by a resistant bacterium, so they can treat the patient with an alternative antimicrobial agent.
We utilize a color-changing, biochemistry-based approach to detect the activity of target resistance biomarkers directly from unprocessed urine samples in minutes. Our patented platform amplification technology overcomes the sensitivity limitations of other biochemical tests, enabling direct testing on urine and providing simple results needed in point-of-care settings.
