NEW YORK – Oxford Nanopore Technologies and Day Zero Diagnostics announced on Tuesday that they have formed a collaboration to develop an end-to-end diagnostic solution for bloodstream infections. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed.
The firms will partner to integrate and optimize a clinical diagnostic system for fully automated sample processing and whole-genome sequencing, enabling same day identification and genomics-based antibiotic susceptibility profiling without the need for blood culture, they said in a statement.
The planned diagnostic system will combine DZD's ultra-high enrichment sample preparation technology and its AI-driven Keynome microbial identification and antibiotic susceptibility pipeline with sequencing reads from Oxford Nanopore's high-throughput PromethIon 2 Solo.
"Culture-free, same-day organism identification and antimicrobial susceptibility profiling directly from native samples will be a game changer for infectious disease diagnostics, directly enabling early, targeted, lifesaving treatment for patients," said Jong Lee, CEO and cofounder of Day Zero Diagnostics.
The firms plan to pursue regulatory approvals for the system, including with the US Food and Drug Administration.
"Our hope is that the rapid results, high accuracy, and accessibility of the Oxford Nanopore system, combined with DZD's expertise and workflow, will make it possible for more people to access a solution that's fast and effective in the fight against bloodstream infections," said Oxford Nanopore Technologies CEO Gordon Sanghera.
In addition to the diagnostic platform development partnership, DZD signed an agreement to use Oxford Nanopore's platforms for sequencing and analysis as part of its epiXact lab services for commercial customers.