We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. This includes personalizing content and advertising. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. Cookie Policy.

Alifax Presents First Automated System for Bacterial Culture and Susceptibility Testing at ECCMID 2022

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 22 Apr 2022

Image: Alfred 60AST is the first automated system for bacterial culture and susceptibility testing (Photo courtesy of Alifax)

Image: Alfred 60AST is the first automated system for bacterial culture and susceptibility testing (Photo courtesy of Alifax)

Alifax S.r.l. (Padua, Italy) presented the world’s first automated system for bacterial culture and susceptibility testing at the 32nd edition of the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2022) held in Lisbon, Portugal on 23 - 26 April 2022. ECCMID has become one of the most comprehensive and influential congresses in the field of infection and an exciting networking place bringing together more than 14,000 colleagues from all over the world.

At this year’s ECCMID, Alifax presented Alfred 60AST, the first fully automated system able to perform bacterial culture, RAA and susceptibility testing by automating the whole process of sample inoculation, reading and result transmission. Using the patented technology based on light scattering it is able to detect the presence of bacteria and their drug resistance in a few hours with high sensitivity and specificity. The CE - IVD Marked Alfred 60AST monitors the growth phases of bacteria from the inoculum step into specific culture broths providing real time growth curves and quantitative bacterial count results in CFU/ml.

Alifax also demonstrated HB&L, the first analyzer for bacterial culture and susceptibility testing in human biological fluids and urine. HB&L is the first analyser able to perform bacterial culture, RAA test and susceptibility testing on samples such as urine, sterile or non sterile fluids and other biological samples. Using the patented technology based on light scattering it is able to detect the presence of bacteria and their drug resistance in a few hours with high sensitivity and specificity.

Related Links:
Alifax S.r.l.

Visit expo >

Gold Member

Flocked Fiber Swabs

Puritan® Patented HydraFlock®

POC Helicobacter Pylori Test Kit
Hepy Urease Test

New

Prefilled Tubes

Prefilled 5.0ml Tubes

New

LAIR2 Antibody Pair Set

LAIR2 Antibody Pair [Biotin]

Latest ECCMID 2022 News

Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel

Next Generation Automated Analyzers Increase Throughput for Clinical Chemistry and Electrolyte Testing

Clinical laboratories continue to face staffing shortages, limited space, and growing test volumes that pressure chemistry and electrolyte workflows. Maintaining rapid turnaround times increasingly depends... Read more

Blood Metabolite Test Detects Early Cognitive Decline

Timely identification of individuals at risk of dementia remains difficult because symptoms commonly appear only after significant neurodegeneration. Accessible screening tools that flag subtle cognitive... Read more

AI-Based Blood Test Diagnose Multiple Brain Disorders from Blood Sample

Diagnosing the cause of age-related cognitive symptoms remains challenging because clinical presentations of neurodegenerative diseases often overlap, and multiple pathologies can co-occur... Read more

New CLIA Status Brings Mass Spectrometry Steroid Testing to Routine Labs

Steroid hormone measurement is a core application of clinical mass spectrometry, which is widely regarded as a diagnostic gold standard. Access to these high-specificity methods has often been constrained... Read more

Molecular Diagnostics

view channel

Immune Signatures in Blood Help Inform Cancer Risk in Lynch Syndrome

Lynch syndrome is a hereditary condition that increases risk for colorectal and endometrial cancers and often results in earlier-onset disease. Clinicians need better ways to stratify asymptomatic carriers... Read more

Genetic Marker Predicts Early Heart Failure in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a progressive condition characterized by obstructed pulmonary blood flow and strain on the right heart, with half of patients dying within five years of diagnosis.... Read more

Genomic Subtyping Assays Identify High-Risk Early-Stage Breast Cancers

Racial survival disparities in early-stage breast cancer remain a persistent clinical concern in the United States, with Black women experiencing higher mortality despite similar treatments.... Read more

cfDNA Methylation Assay Enables Multi-Disease Detection from Single Blood Sample

Early, accurate detection of cancer and organ disease remains limited by cost, reliance on targeted mutation assays, and uncertainty about the signal’s tissue of origin. Many liquid biopsy approaches require... Read more

Hematology

view channel

Open Multi-Omics Platform Identifies Prognostic Subtypes in Blood Cancers

Blood cancers encompass diverse entities whose biology and clinical behavior are best understood through integrative analyses across large cohorts. However, multi‑omic datasets and outcomes information... Read more

AI-Powered Digital Workflow Standardizes Bone Marrow Aspirate Morphology

Bone marrow aspirate examination is central to diagnosing and monitoring blood cancers and other serious hematologic diseases, yet the process in many laboratories remains manual and highly dependent on... Read more

$Image: Hemex Health’s Gazelle platform is designed to rapidly separate and detect hemoglobin fractions and variants using miniaturized electrophoresis technology (photo courtesy of Hemex Health)$

Rapid Cartridge-Based Test Aims to Expand Access to Hemoglobin Disorder Diagnosis

Sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia are hemoglobin disorders that often require referral to specialized laboratories for definitive diagnosis, delaying results for patients and clinicians.... Read more

New Guidelines Aim to Improve AL Amyloidosis Diagnosis

Light chain (AL) amyloidosis is a rare, life-threatening bone marrow disorder in which abnormal amyloid proteins accumulate in organs. Approximately 3,260 people in the United States are diagnosed... Read more

Immunology

view channel

Combined Screening Approach Identifies Early Leprosy Cases

Leprosy remains a significant public health concern, with more than 200,000 new cases reported globally each year and early disease often escaping routine laboratory detection. In its initial phase, bacterial... Read more

Image: Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria seen with a scanning electron microscope (Credit: CDC PHIL)

Antibody Blood Test Identifies Active TB and Distinguishes Latent Infection

Active tuberculosis (TB) remains a leading cause of death and illness worldwide, yet distinguishing contagious disease from latent infection continues to challenge clinicians. Standard screening tools... Read more

FDA Approval Expands Use of PD-L1 Companion Diagnostic in Esophageal and GEJ Carcinomas

Esophageal and gastroesophageal junction carcinomas (GEJ) have a poor prognosis, with approximately 16,250 deaths in the United States in 2025 and a five-year relative survival of 21.9%.... Read more

Image: The findings indicate common blood tests can provide insight to tumor activity before treatment begins (photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Study Identifies Inflammatory Pathway Driving Immunotherapy Resistance in Bladder Cancer

Bladder cancer remains a prevalent malignancy with variable responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors. Clinicians often observe elevated C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 in affected patients, yet the... Read more

Microbiology

view channel

New Bacterial Target Identified for Early Detection of Noma

Noma is a rapidly progressing orofacial infection that begins as gingivitis and can destroy oral and facial tissues, primarily affecting young children living in extreme poverty. Without treatment, it... Read more

Genomic Analysis Links Emerging Streptococcal Strains to Specific Infections

Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilis (SDSE) infections are increasing worldwide and include variants that may lead to severe disease. Researchers now report that whole-genome sequencing of... Read more

Image: The direct-from-urine rapid method can identify an effective antibiotic in an average of 5.85 hours (photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Rapid Urine Test Speeds Antibiotic Selection for UTIs

Urinary tract infections are a common reason for antibiotic prescribing and have led to more than 800,000 hospital admissions across England in the past five years, according to National Health Service data.... Read more

Image: The guidance recommends easy‑to‑collect tongue swab samples and a cost‑saving sputum pooling strategy for TB and rifampicin‑resistant TB. (photo courtesy of WHO / Enric Catala Contreras)

WHO Endorses Rapid Point-of-Care Testing to Improve TB Detection

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a leading infectious killer, with more than 3,300 deaths and 29,000 new illnesses every day. Diagnostic delays and dependence on centralized laboratory networks continue to impede... Read more

Pathology

view channel

AI Tool Predicts Chemotherapy Response in Small Cell Lung Cancer

Small cell lung cancer often presents at an extensive stage and progresses rapidly, leaving little time to tailor first-line therapy. Clinicians currently lack biomarkers to guide which patients will benefit... Read more

Tumor-Specific Biomarker Predicts Neoadjuvant Immunotherapy Response in Gastric Cancer

Gastric cancer is the fifth most common malignancy and the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, with China bearing nearly half of the global burden. Only a subset of patients benefit from... Read more

AI Tool Predicts Patient-Specific Chemotherapy Benefit in Breast Cancer

Selecting adjuvant chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer is typically guided by recurrence risk and population-level averages rather than patient-specific benefit. However, existing clinicopathologic... Read more

Image: Study cohorts, deep learning system architecture, and performance evaluation on TAILORx-Test (Shamai G, Cohen S, Binenbaum Y et al., Lancet Oncology, 2026; . DOI: 10.1016/s1470-2045(25)00727-2)

AI-Based Pathology Model Guides Chemotherapy Decisions in Breast Cancer

Selecting adjuvant chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer remains a difficult decision because only a subset benefits and many undergo toxicity without gain. Genomic assays can help but are costly,... Read more

Technology

view channel

Image: Graphical Abstract (Huiqian Hu et al., Med 7(3): 100966 (2026). DOI: 10.1016/j.medj.2025.100966)

New AI Tool Enables Rapid Treatment Selection in Pediatric Leukemia

Children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia face an aggressive disease that remains difficult to treat. Although remission rates have improved, many survivors experience long-term effects from intensive... Read more

Image: The new MultiQ-IT prototype can cool, trap, filter, and redirect over a billion ions simultaneously, dramatically improving dynamic range and signal-to-noise (Photo courtesy of Lori Chertoff/The Rockefeller University)

Breakthrough Mass Spectrometry Design Could Enable Ultra-Low Abundance Detection

Mass spectrometry is central to identifying and quantifying molecules in complex biological samples, but conventional instruments typically analyze ions sequentially, which can limit detection of rare species.... Read more

Image: Schematic illustration of the MetaRing platform for detecting paclitaxel treatment sensitivity in breast cancer (Photo courtesy of HUANG Guangyao)

Rapid Biosensor Detects Drug Sensitivity in Breast Tumors

Chemotherapy selection for breast cancer is challenged by heterogeneous tumor responses. Conventional chemosensitivity assays can be slow, require large sample volumes, and struggle with complex biological... Read more

Online Tool Supports Family Screening for Inherited Cancer Risk

Genetic test results in oncology often have implications for relatives who may share inherited cancer risk. Many health systems lack structured processes to help patients alert family members, limiting... Read more

Industry

view channel

Global Partnership Aims to Streamline NGS Tumor Profiling in Oncology Trials

CellCarta and Pillar Biosciences announced a global, multi-year strategic partnership on April 2, 2026 to broaden access to operationally streamlined next-generation sequencing (NGS) tumor profiling for... Read more

Takara Bio USA and Hamilton Partner Partner to Automate NGS Library Preparation

Takara Bio USA, Inc. (San Jose, CA, USA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Takara Bio Inc., and Hamilton Company (Reno, NV, USA) announced a development and co-marketing agreement to deliver integrated, automated... Read more

Lunit and CellCarta Collaborate to Expand AI Pathology in CDx Development

Lunit (Seoul, South Korea), a leading provider of AI for cancer diagnostics and precision oncology, and CellCarta (Montreal, QC, Canada), a global contract research organization (CRO) laboratory serving... Read more

Integrated DNA Technologies Expands into Clinical Diagnostics

Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT; Coralville, Iowa, USA) has announced the launch of Archer FUSIONPlex-HT Dx and VARIANTPlex-HT Dx. This launch marks the company’s first in vitro diagnostic (IVD) offerings... Read more