INSIGHTS / News

SETsquared Bristol member, FluoretiQ has announced confirmation of a new European patent for its antibiotic susceptibility testing tool, SCFI.

Statistics from the UK Health Security Agency indicate that an estimated 58,224 people faced an antibiotic-resistant infection in 2022 – a rise of 4% from the year before. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a growing global health crisis, where antimicrobial medicines are no longer effective in killing or slowing the growth of microorganisms. This resistance renders standard treatments ineffective, leading to persistent infections, longer hospital stays, higher medical costs, and increased mortality.

However, FluoretiQ has developed SCFI (Sub-Cellular Fluctuating Imaging), an advanced optical system designed to analyse nanoscale movements within bacterial cells. The development comes from a collaboration between the medtech start-up and a team of researchers at the University of Bristol, led by Dr Massimo Antognozzi.

This technology can meticulously track and interpret the subtle changes that occur in response to antibiotic treatments, and within just 30 minutes of exposure, accurately determine the state of the cells, whether they are alive, dead, or in the process of dying.

The rapid assessment will allow healthcare professionals to identify the most effective antibiotics for each patient faster, reducing the time needed for treatment whilst ensuring that the correct medication is prescribed first-time for patients. Using it in clinical settings could significantly enhance the precision and speed of antibiotic selection, a critical factor in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

Following the patent’s recent approval, FluoretiQ will continue working on developing the 30-minute point-of-care system. The hope is that SCFI will become one of the fastest and most precise phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility tests available globally, focusing initially on urinary tract infections and sexually transmitted diseases.

Last month, FluoretiQ also secured £1.4m in grant funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research, with the funding to be used on a three-year-long project in collaboration with the universities of Bristol, Oxford, Sheffield Hallam and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Speaking on the impact of this new technology, Josephine Dorh, Co-Founder and CTO, FluoretiQ, said that the innovation can help address one of the most pressing medical challenges facing the healthcare industry: “SCFI is a true gamechanger for enabling accurate and timely antibiotic use and we look forward to delivering a family of life-saving products from the SCFI platform.”