Determining whether an infection is bacterial or viral used to be a coin toss, until an Israeli startup developed a device for doing just that.
Israeli company MeMed announced Wednesday that it has received a $9.2 million contract from the United States Department of Defense in what would be a huge step forward for medical treatment: prescribing antibiotics only when necessary.
The contract comes from the DoD’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), and will help MeMed complete the development of a bedside device that can distinguish between sources of infections, the Times of Israel reported.
MeMed’s CEO Eran Edan called the contract a “vote of confidence” that “further positions MeMed as a world leader in immune-based diagnostics of infectious diseases.”
The company’s researchers discovered that immune system proteins react differently to different types of infections, and identified three proteins that are activated in reaction to a patient’s infection by viruses or bacteria. MeMed then uses algorithms to develop an “immune signature” based on these proteins that can correctly identify the source of the infection.
The first test, named the “ImmunoXpert,” can produce results in 99 minutes and has been approved for clinical use in the European Union, Switzerland, and Israel. It is in the process of increasing its commercial presence.
The goals of MeMed’s second generation test are to produce results in a span of just 15 minutes and to be used outside of clinical facilities.
“This collaboration will allow us to expedite completion of our point of care platform program,” said Kfir Oved, MeMed’s chief technology officer. “In addition to allowing measurements of our bacterial versus viral test within minutes, the new platform also opens the way to a variety of rapid multiplex-protein measurements at the point of care with lab-quality precision, which has broad applications.”
The project being funded by the DTRA will target early-stage infections, which are more challenging to control and could lead to possible epidemics.
DTRA, which was founded in 1998, is geared toward consolidating DoD efforts in fighting weapons of mass destruction.
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