Developing a portfolio of diagnostic tests that address two growing global healthcare challenges: early infection diagnosis and antimicrobial resistance, Presymptom Health will also use the funding to make its rapid tests compatible with a variety of widely available PCR machines, ‘streamlining diagnostics is secondary care’.
The company says its InfectiClear technology can detect infection up to three days earlier than current methods by analysing the body’s RNA-based response, ‘rather than searching for the pathogen itself’. Presymptom Health said: “Trained and validated on 15 years’ worth of patient data, the AI-driven test ensures doctors can correctly detect the presence, or lack, of infection, at the earliest possible opportunity. This approach provides an early, highly sensitive signal for infection or sepsis, avoiding the delays and inaccuracies often seen with traditional tests, which can lead to unnecessary or incorrect treatments.”
CEO, Dr Iain Miller, said: “Identifying infections quickly and accurately is critical – not just for saving lives, but for ensuring antibiotics are only used when absolutely necessary. Misdiagnosing an infection, or missing it altogether, can have devastating consequences, while unnecessary antibiotic use fuels antimicrobial resistance, one of the biggest global health threats we face.
“The NHS, and most hospitals worldwide, rely on a variety of PCR platforms from different manufacturers, which can make rolling out new diagnostic tests a challenge. By ensuring our technology is broadly compatible across multiple platforms, we’re making it easier for hospitals to adopt faster, more accurate infection detection. Whether tests are run at the point of care by nurses, or in labs by technicians, this flexibility means better diagnoses for all patients. Ultimately, this will improve patient outcomes, while also helping the fight against antimicrobial resistance.”
Presymptom Health says the funding will also help ensure that the NHS can make best use of existing PCR machines, many of which it says have been underutilised since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Details of the funding include:
- £100,000 from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Grant, which will enable Presymptom to make its technology compatible with the PCR platform manufactured by QuantuMDx. It can deliver results in 40 minutes, and tests will be available at point of care.
- £100,000 from the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Healthcare Grant – a funding programme designed to provide financial support to early-stage healthcare innovations with potential to improve patient care and system efficiency. This grant will help Presymptom Health make its technology compatible with the widely used Mic PCR platform from Bio Molecular Systems, which can potentially deliver test results in under an hour when undertaken in the lab.
As part of the SBRI grant, Presymptom Health will run a six-month feasibility project alongside Health Innovation Oxford and Thames Valley (HIOTV), ‘to understand barriers to entry and the best approach for the NHS adopting this new technology’.
Presymptom Health was established to exploit IP developed by scientists working at the UK Defence Science & Technologies Laboratory (Dstl), initially researching how to tackle biological threat infection, such as anthrax, plague, and Ebola. Ploughshare – the company ‘that finds new and inspiring uses for government inventions’ – identified the innovation as having ‘potential societal impact’, and spun it out from the UK Ministry of Defence in 2019.