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SEATTLE, Aug. 01, 2017 -- Today, Seattle-based ID Genomics, Inc. was awarded a grant from the Longitude Prize Discovery Awards, a seed funding program to help teams competing to win the prestigious Longitude Prize. Run by innovation foundation Nesta and supported by Innovate UK as funding partner, the Longitude Prize is a £10 million prize fund to create a cost-effective, rapid and easy-to-use diagnostic test for bacterial infections so that the right antibiotics can be administered at the right time. More than 240 teams from 40 countries are competing for the Prize.
ID Genomics is developing innovative “bacterial fingerprinting” technology that has the potential to reduce prescription errors and the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics by improving the accuracy and speed of antibiotic prescribing process. At scale, the technology could ultimately improve patient outcomes and slow the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
At a time when antimicrobial resistance is forecasted to cause 10 million deaths annually by 2050, the seed funding program aims to drive much-needed innovation in the development of a game-changing, point-of-care diagnostic. ID Genomics is one of 13 organizations from Australia, Belgium, India, Israel, the Netherlands, the USA and United Kingdom to win the Award. Funding for the Discovery Awards draws on a grant of £250,000 from MSD, known as Merck in the United States and Canada, a global healthcare company.
“It is truly an honor to receive a Longitude Prize Discovery Award,” said Evgeni Sokurenko, Founder of ID Genomics and Professor of Microbiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
“Our team, supported by partners in our clinical consortium, is working tirelessly to advance our core technology so that we can track, contain and treat antibiotic-resistant superbugs around the globe. We look forward to continuing to compete for the Longitude Prize,” added Kaveri Parker, ID Genomics President and CEO.
ID Genomics’ CLoNeTTM rapid diagnostic test can determine the bacterial fingerprint of different strains of the main pathogens (like Escherichia coli) in urinary tract infections (UTIs) in less than 30 minutes. This fingerprint is then matched against the company’s BactNetTM reference database of thousands of bacterial strains obtained across the world, and their antibiotic response profiles. With specific information about a particular strain’s potential resistance, an individual patient can be prescribed the antibiotic best suited to their infection. The ‘big data’ approach merges epidemiological surveillance, antimicrobial stewardship, and molecular diagnostics to bring precision medicine directly to the point-of-care.
Earlier this year, peer-reviewed results of observational clinical research demonstrated that ID Genomics’ “bacterial fingerprinting” technology has the potential to improve antibiotic prescribing, reduce prescription errors and the overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics, which could ultimately improve patient outcomes and slow the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The paper, “Bacterial Clonal Diagnostics as a Tool for Evidence-Based Empiric Antibiotic Selection,” was published in the Open Access journal PLOS ONE. In addition to UTIs, ID Genomics plans to expand its technology to identify and treat a wide range of bacterial infections.
About ID Genomics
ID Genomics is a Seattle-based health technology company that is developing rapid point-of-care diagnostics for infectious disease diagnosis and treatment. Its proprietary CLoNeT™ and BactNet™ DNA fingerprinting-based diagnostics system leverages key discoveries in microbiology and bacterial genomics to improve patient outcomes, decrease costs, and ultimately reduce the spread of infectious diseases. Research has shown that ID Genomics’ technology gives health care providers information about essential characteristics of the infecting bacteria, enabling them to accurately prescribe correct antibiotics for infectious diseases in less than 30 minutes. More information is available online at www.idgenomics.com.
Media Contacts John Williams, Scoville PR for ID Genomics 206-625-0075 x1, [email protected] Kasia Murphy, Media Manager, Nesta t: +44 2074382610 m: +447929800765 [email protected]
