104643Feasibility assessment of rapid identification (R-ID) technology for point of care detection of urinary tract infections and drug-resistance markersClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UK"The proposed project aims to evaluate the technical, clinical, and commercial value of LIG Biowise's developed technology (R-ID) to assist diagnosis and management of urine tract infections (UTI) at the point of care (POC), where high proportion of UTI affected patients is treated. Urinary tract infections (UTI) are very common infections, affecting around 92 million people globally with potential serious consequences for patients' health and high cost for NHS. UTIs are mainly caused by bacterial and often require antibiotic treatment for management of infection. In the current UTI management practice the accurate diagnosis is delayed by around 48 hours, when results of urine analysis and pathogen identification are available. In the cases of critical UTI infections the prescription of wide-spectrum antibiotics is necessary, before the test results are available, and it is done based on the clinical symptoms and the use of low accuracy urine dipstick test. This introduces risks of ineffective treatment and contributes to overuse of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance. The recent UK primary care survey named UTI as a main condition with strong clinical needs for diagnostics and there is growing trend in development of such POC technologies to achieve objective diagnosis and improve precision of infection management. R-ID technology provides sample processing and rapid (30 min) molecular-based identification and quantification of pathogens and antibiotic-resistance markers. Translation of this technology into UTI management may lead to improvement in the current treatment by providing fast and accurate data of UTI pathogen, quantification, and presence of resistance markers. The project will run as 5 work packages, led by LIG Biowise team and the subcontractor -- The Robert Darbishire GP Practice. In the scope of the project the team will work with key stakeholders and potential end-users of the technology to understand the technical, operational, clinical, financial, and regulatory requirements and challenges to consider and adopt it and will carry out initial financial feasibility assessment. The project will also conduct a laboratory-scale proof of concept experiments to evaluate technical feasibility and demonstrate the technology for detection of 3 UTI pathogens and 1-2 drug-resistance markers. The expected outcome of the project is a confirmed feasibility of the technology, demonstration the proof of concept and prepared plan and value proposition for NHS for further development, exploitation, and commercialisation for UTI detection at the POC."