High Sensitive Electrochemical Assay to Monitor Gut Microbiome

Multidrug resistant organisms MDROs are responsible for over million hospitalization cases and deaths annually in the United States The lack of effective antibiotic therapies against resistant pathogens leads to increased mortality increased hospital length of stay and excessive direct healthcare costs Current diagnostic and monitoring options to reduce the occurrence of these organisms include either lab based complex testing which is expensive and immobile or immunoassay based testing without adequate specificity Therefore there is an urgent need for a diagnostic tool that can rapidly identify and quantify MDROs as well as provide a snapshot of the overall microbiota balance in the gut To address the MDRO diagnostic needs outlined by the CDC Giner Inc Giner in collaboration with the research and clinical team at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center UTSW proposes to adapt its nucleic acid sensor platform to develop an electrochemical assay for rapid sensitive and highly specific detection of MDROs in mouse and human stool samples for accurate diagnosis of MDRO presence in lower intestinal tract and determination of the relative abundance of MDROs as compared to the entire gut microbiome