Research into a new generation of a graphene-based diagnostic test – which could identify patients who need antibiotics in minutes, instead of hours – will be delivered in Manchester.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) is collaborating with graphene electronics specialists, Paragraf, the universities of Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle, and Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, on the development of the ‘world-first’ test.
If trials are successful, the hand-held test would give doctors the ability to identify patients with a respiratory infection like pneumonia, who need an antibiotic treatment, within the space of a regular 15-minute clinic appointment – or deliver accurate results for emergency patient care, within a few minutes, from a small sample of blood.
A two-year programme will develop a proof-of-concept test, which uses a combination of procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) to determine between bacterial and viral infections.
Dr Tim Felton, Director of DiTA and an Intensive Care Consultant at Wythenshawe Hospital, which is part of MFT, said:
“The main benefit of a single PCT and CRP test, is that a combined test increases confidence in the accuracy of the result when discriminating between bacterial and other infections.”
Dr Felton, who is also a researcher within the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC), Respiratory Theme, added: “An accurate test able to provide results that can guide antibiotic therapy in real-time is becoming a critical tool in the fight against antibiotic resistance.”
Paul Dark, Professor of Critical Care Medicine at The University of Manchester, and Honorary NHS Consultant at Salford Royal, part of Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Nobel laureate scientists at The University of Manchester first isolated graphene in 2004 and so our city can claim to be the birthplace of the graphene industry.
