Ultra Rapid Culture Independent Detection of High-Priority Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae Directly From Blood

It is our overall goal to develop a new diagnostic technology that will facilitate antibacterial stewardship to reduce selective pressure and improve patient outcomes. The Institute of Medicine has identified antibiotic resistance as one of the key microbial threats to health in the United States and has prioritized decreasing inappropriate use of antimicrobials as the primary solution to address this threat. The emergence of carbapenem resistance among Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) in the United States represents a recent and severe byproduct of excessive antimicrobial use with a high mortality rate in bacteremia. A major barrier toward decreasing use of antimicrobials is lack of sensitive and accurate rapid diagnostic tests for identifying bacterial etiologies of infection.