The Tough Tech problem we are solving
The pathogens causing invasive infections in hospitals are diagnosed by blood culture which takes days and has a >50% false-negative rate. Doctors use DNA sequencing based tests as a “last resort” when culture fails, but sequencing is orders of magnitude more expensive, only marginally faster, and prone to false positives. With no routine and reliable way to detect or track infections, physicians have to manage patients based on educated guesses. This often leads to aggressive broad-spectrum antibiotics over indefinite periods of time which expose patients to additional complications and promote drug resistance.
About our solution
Anvil Diagnostics is developing reliable DNA-based blood tests to differentiate up to hundreds of pathogens and resistance markers in a few hours. Uniquely, Anvil’s proprietary sensors and signal processing algorithms enable these features on existing digital PCR hardware. Not only would this simple test be faster and more reliable than culture, but routine quantitative results would allow clinicians to track the progression of infections over the entire patient journey, allowing a gradual expansion in how Anvil can change the paradigm of care.