Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) recently awarded up to $6.2 million to the infectious disease diagnostics firm Day Zero Diagnostics to accelerate early research of and develop treatments for superbug infections.
“There has never been a more dramatic demonstration of the importance of rapid and accurate diagnostics to combat infectious disease threats than the current COVID-19 pandemic,” Jong Lee, CEO of Day Zero Diagnostics, said. “Antibiotic-resistant infections can be extremely lethal, spread easily and persistently in healthcare institutions, and they continue to grow as a global threat. We are pleased to have CARB-X’s support to develop a new class of culture-free, sequencing-based diagnostics that can modernize the fight against these dangerous infections.”
The research scope involves aggregating and analyzing the genomes and resistance profiles of pathogens sequenced by the diagnostic system in real-time, enabling Day Zero Diagnostics to offer visibility into the proliferation of resistant organisms, identify and predict outbreaks within hospitals and regions and help identify potential targets for developing new antibiotics.
“This is the first whole-genome sequencing and machine learning technology in the CARB-X portfolio and an exciting new diagnostic approach,” Erin Duffy,
chief of Research and Development at CARB-X, said. “New technologies, like the diagnostic under development by Day Zero, if successful, could transform the way physicians diagnose and treat drug-resistant infections and save lives.”