Multiplexed Assay for the Detection of Wound-related Pathogens

Wound-related pathogens (WRPs) are a major challenge affecting the care of injured soldiers. Infection caused by WRPs can lead to mortality in the event rapid identification and medical diagnosis of wound-related bloodstream infections is not accomplished in a timely fashion. However, limited options exist for field-deployable medical diagnostic instrumentation to rapidly detect WRPs before associated infections become systematic. Current methods for WRP diagnostics require trained technicians and a dedicated laboratory space to perform the necessary assays and cultures. In contrast, the rapidly evolving field of genetic diagnostics promises greater sensitivity and the ability to perform complex nucleic acid extraction and detection on a diverse range of pathogenic species in a simple testing environment. The rate limiting steps in multiplex genetic diagnostics now rest on extraction/collection of the target nucleic acid sequences and the ability to perform high sensitivity binding affinity assessment with a minimal number of processing steps. In order to ensure that treatment is provided as rapid as possible, methods that will enable compact, highly multiplexed testing of genetic information, be it human or microbial, in a field deployable device is required. To this end, Nanohmics proposes to develop NucleoVolt SNAP (Simple Nucleic Acid Profiler), a multiplex genetic diagnostics platform for Wound-Related Pathogen (WRP) detection.