Bristol-based FluoretiQ is developing fast and accurate point-of-care tests to enable more targeted antibiotic use and mitigate the impending crisis being caused by growing antimicrobial resistance.
FluoretiQ has announced that the European Patent for SCFI, a groundbreaking antibiotic susceptibility testing platform, invented by a team of University of Bristol researchers led by Dr. Massimo Antognozzi and under exclusive license to FluoretiQ has now been granted. This is a critical milestone on the journey to commercialisation and provides external validation in the technology.
SCFI is an optical system that uses machine learning to analyse nanoscale movement in bacterial cells. Within just 30 minutes of treatment with antibiotics, it can determine whether the cells are alive, dead or dying and thereby determine which antibiotics would be most effective.
The next stage for FluoretiQ is to continue the development of a 30-minute point-of-care system – this would be one of the world’s fastest and most accurate phenotypic antibiotic susceptibility tests and will initially address UTIs and STDs.
There are approximately 404 million UTI’s reported across the world each year, with approximately 908 diagnosed by the NHS every hour. Meanwhile gonorrhoea infections are on the rise – rates have increased across 97% of all UK council areas since 2017. However, our overuse of antibiotics has meant that bacteria from routine infections are becoming more resilient against antibiotics – currently more than 700,000 people die each year because of these untreatable infections and that number is only going to rise unless solutions can be found and implemented.
CoFounder and CTO of FluoretiQ, Josephine Dorh, says the company’s new technology can help address these 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," Josephine said.
FluoretiQ spun-out company from the University of Bristol in 2017, and became part of the SETsquared business incubator, benefiting from tailored business support and an ecosystem of fellow entrepreneurs, investors, mentors and professionals to help navigate the challenges of growing a business.
For more information about FluoretiQ, please visit: First Prescription, Right Prescription | FluoretiQ.
FluoretiQ CEO Neciah Dorh was interviewed as part of the University of Bristol's Enterprise Sessions - see the video here: Better Diagnostics for Improved Antibiotic Stewardship | The Enterprise Sessions with Neciah Dorh (youtube.com).