GenomeKey has been awarded a major grant from Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) to build a functioning, automated prototype of their desktop diagnostic device.

The Bristol-based company joined our incubation programme in 2020 with a vision to build an in vitro diagnostic device that would completely transform the way we diagnose and treat sepsis and other bacterial infections.

GenomeKey’s next-generation device will be able to detect and identify bacteria directly from patient blood, delivering a full antimicrobial resistance (AMR) profile in just hours.

Dr Michael Roberts, GenomeKey CEO, said: “We have a vision of the world where nobody dies from a treatable infection. Right now, the gold standard test takes too long and has a high false-negative rate. We’re giving clinicians the information they need, much faster, so they can deliver rapid diagnostics testing and precision medicine for a more targeted treatment.

“We live in an exciting time for medical science, where the twin revolutions in next generation sequencing and machine learning now make it possible for us to identify and profile bacteria directly from patient blood, accurately and cheaply. We’re on a mission to save lives, improve outcomes and fight the global threat of antimicrobial resistance.”

Since its founding in 2016, CARB-X has provided more than US$450M to more than 100 projects to address bacterial infections. These projects include vaccines, rapid diagnostics, antibiotics, and other non-traditional therapeutics and preventatives. The CARB-X portfolio is the world’s most scientifically diverse antibacterial R&D portfolio.

Erin Duffy, Chief of R&D at CARB-X, said: “It is imperative to direct treatment quickly with the right antibiotic treatment, and GenomeKey’s technology has the potential to help practitioners direct the appropriate treatment by delivering a phenotypic antibiotic sensitivity prediction based on rapid whole genome sequencing direct from blood.”

Learn more about GenomeKey: genomekey.com

Find out more about SETsquared Bristol’s incubation programme.