XpertBiofilm: a new device for personalised diagnosis of biofilm-related infections

The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria worldwide, along with a shortage of new antibiotics, emphasizes the importance of choosing effective treatments. Biofilm-associated infections are especially difficult because biofilms greatly increase bacteria's resistance to antibiotics and immune responses. Growing biofilms in laboratory settings is challenging, particularly in clinical labs, as they require dynamic environments that mimic in vivo conditions. Current diagnostic methods rely on confocal microscopy and expert analysis, which hampers the ability to identify effective antibiotics. As a result, susceptibility testing (antibiogram) is typically performed on planktonic bacteria, which may display different resistance patterns compared to bacteria within biofilms. This highlights the need for advanced diagnostic tools and personalized treatment approaches.

XpertBiofilm aims to revolutionise hospital microbiology labs with its miniaturized microfluidic device, which can analyse biofilm growth across various bacterial species directly from patient samples. This platform allows for easy, high-throughput testing of antibiofilm agents, simplifying biofilm analysis and treatment assessment.

Our objective is to conduct initial clinical validation and collecting feedback on the importance of personalized treatment strategies.

Key strengths of our technology are:

· An in vitro microfluidic diagnostic device designed for growing and quantifying bacterial biofilms.

· It addresses the limitations of traditional antibiograms, which cannot detect biofilm growth.

· The device enables the simultaneous analysis of multiple species directly from patient samples, offering vital insights to help tailor and improve infection treatment strategies.

XpertBiofilm strives to combat antibiotic multi-resistance and infection recurrences by providing a straightforward, high-throughput method for antimicrobial testing directly from patient samples. It is especially useful for companies developing new antibiotics for biofilm-related infections and for those working on in vitro diagnostic tools for antimicrobial susceptibility testing.