New Coating Enables Rapid Bacterial Analysis

When fully developed, the new system has the potential to replace bacterial culturing by producing test results in a matter of hours. In contrast, results of traditional culturing typically require several days. OptiChem was developed by Accelr8 Technology Corp. (Denver, CO, USA). The company has been awarded a U.S. patent on the coating.

"Dramatically reducing diagnostic delays will accelerate treatment and could potentially save thousands of lives,” said David Howson, president of Accelr8 Technology. "The OptiChem surface chemistry and the BACcelr8r platform represent a leap forward in our ability to more quickly diagnose and treat life-threatening bacterial infections.”

With the global spread of antibiotic resistance, doctors can no longer rely on standardized antibiotic prescriptions. The BACcelr8r platform, using OptiChem, is being designed to precisely identify different types of antibiotic resistance, giving doctors the ability to rapidly select the specific drug most likely to effectively treat the individual patient's infection, according to Accelr8 Technology.

"With the growing crisis of antibiotic resistance, too many diseases are diagnosed too late. We must diagnose life-threatening infections faster,” added Mr. Howson. "Every infection is different, and changes over time.

The patented coating is also proving useful in the field of DNA research as the promise of the human genome project begins to gain ground. OptiChem-coated slides are already used in research applications. The company first commercialized OptiChem in its OptArray microarraying slide and licensed the product to Schott Nexterion (Jena, Germany) for worldwide manufacturing and marketing. Schott sells the product under its Nexterion "Slide H” brand.





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