AsianScientist (Jul 10, 2014) – The growing menace of antibiotic resistance could soon be curtailed, thanks to the development of a new low-cost ultra-rapid, portable device to test antibiotic sensitivity of human urinary pathogens.
The technology has been transferred to an incubatee company named “Xcellence in Bio Innovation and Technologies Pte Ltd. xBITS” for commercial scale production. Professor V S Rao, Director of BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus signed an agreement with the representative from xBITS in the presence of Professor Suman Kapur who invented the technology at BITS Pilani Hyderabad campus on the June 27, 2014.
On this occasion Prof. V S Rao emphasized the importance of translating research for larger societal benefits, noting that very few affordable indigenous technologies are available in India today.
Prof. Kapur described the portable antibiotic tester as “the fastest antibiotic finder available till date”. This technology is expected to reduce the use of antibiotics and thus help in fighting the growing microbial resistance to antibiotics.
She said the device reliability as well as the cost was comparable to the conventional assays for antibiotic sensitivity of pathogens. This could be used in any setting—be it a doctor’s clinic, lab or hospital—to test antibiotic sensitivity of pathogens found in human biological fluids and tissue scrapings. The device comes with a ready-to-use kit that provides results in a couple of hours as opposed to the normal wait of two to three days for a sample to be cultured and tested in a lab.
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Source: BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus.
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