Sample Collection and Processing Methods to Support Battlefield Wound Infection Diagnostics

Current methods of sample processing, including culturing and plating, are unreliable for many types of microbes, require multiple days to produce a result, and are not generally capable of providing detailed identification to the species level.  Triton’s proposed method is intended to produce a result within two hours, and is designed to be compatible with DNA sequence analysis platforms previously developed by Triton, which can provide detailed identification down to the species or strain level. This sample processing method was designed based on analogous Phase I (feasibility) level work performed by Triton.  Triton’s wound infection sample processing method is simple enough to be performed by minimally trained users in under two hours and versatile enough to accept any sample type, including liquid sample types such as wound exudate and blood draws, as well as solid wound tissue biopsies, and works for any class of microbes, including gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, round yeast, and filamentous fungi.  Triton’s proposed sample processing and downstream sample analysis platform can be designed to provide multiplexed detection of specific DNA sequences from a diverse set of pathogens of concern, including those used to identify bacterial species (gram-negative, and gram-positive) and fungal species.