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Rhode Island Hospital Wins $1M From CARB-X for Molecular Pneumonia Blood Test

NEW YORK – The Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) program announced Tuesday that it has awarded $1 million to Rhode Island Hospital at Brown University Health to support proof-of-concept studies of a direct-from-blood PCR test informed by RNA sequencing to detect pneumonia-causing bacteria.

Globally, lower-respiratory tract infections cause the death of 700,000 children and 2.5 million adults each year, while a lack of rapid, accurate diagnostic tests contributes to broad-spectrum antibiotic use that in turn fuels antibiotic resistance.

″By supporting Rhode Island Hospital's work, CARB-X is learning whether alternative sample types in detecting LRTIs is promising for future product development,″ Erin Duffy, chief of research and development at CARB-X, said in a statement.

The pneumonia test will target lower respiratory tract infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Haemophilus influenzae bacteria and is expected to have a four-hour turnaround time.

The support from CARB-X will expand on prior work to develop a direct-from-blood, culture-independent sepsis diagnostic informed by RNA sequencing data from patients, said Sean Monaghan, a surgeon at Rhode Island Hospital and investigator on the study.

CARB-X expects to announce additional funded projects later this year.