Rapid Diagnostic Used in Sepsis Management

Until now, clinicians have had to trade off the speed and relative ease of use of conventional highly parallel individual assays, against the information richness, but complexity and unwieldiness of next generation sequencing (NGS).

A new diagnostic test will identify directly, without the need for culture, the microbial cause of bloodstream infection leading to sepsis. Fast and accurate identification of the infection can be a lifesaver. The test achieves this relatively quickly compared to at least a day for current tests that rely on a prior positive blood culture.


LiDia (DNA Electronics Ltd, Carlsbad, CA, USA) is a closed system that can be operated at the clinical point-of-need, with no laboratory services or specialist training required. It is able to deliver accurate results in less than three hours, direct from blood (or other sample material), providing treating physicians with valuable intelligence to help treat their patients. The genomic analysis platform, LiDia, is based on the invention of semiconductor DNA sequencing by serial technology.

The first test available on the LiDia platform will be the LiDia bloodstream infection (BSI) test, a rapid blood-to-result diagnostic for use in the management of sepsis. LiDia BSI offers a significant reduction in time-to-result compared to the current standard of culture-based diagnosis, which requires a microbiology laboratory and generally several days to produce a result. Uniquely, LiDia BSI will test for both bacterial and fungal pathogens with a single test, as well as testing for antimicrobial resistance.

Nick McCooke, Chief Business Officer of DNAe, said, “Our use of semiconductor-based genomic analysis sets us apart from other molecular diagnostics companies by combining the analytical power of next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies with the speed of multiplexed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) platforms. This is critical to facilitating the integration of genomic technologies into the everyday workflow of physicians and hospitals, and will have a profound impact on how patients are treated.” The product was introduced at the BioCentury’s 24th Annual Newsmakers in the Biotech Industry meeting held September 8, 2017, in New York, NY, USA.

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