CAMO brings together innovative, multidisciplinary research to optimise antimicrobial use and sustain the effectiveness of these drugs in the face of increasing AMR and the absence of new treatments. To improve patient outcomes and reduce the development of AMR, CAMO, alongside partners at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and the Centre for Bio-Inspired Technology, is developing novel technologies that support tailored dosing for the individual, the illness, and the infection; this includes:
- Development of rapid diagnostic solutions for the detection of infections and genes associated with antimicrobial resistance to guide treatment decisions and optimise antimicrobial use, including CPE, colistin resistance (mcr), SARS-CoV-2 and Respiratory Tract Infections.
- Real-time biosensor technologies to monitor antimicrobial concentrations and disease biomarkers within the body on microneedle or on a Point of Care devices.
- Utilising artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist with infection detection, diagnosis, clinical decision making and providing effective guidance on antimicrobial selection, timing and concentrations to use, especially in vulnerable patient populations.
Examples:
Point-of-Care solutions: An innovative diagnostic platform based on semiconductor microchip technology, which provides a low cost, scalable, rapid and portable solution. Test results are provided on a smartphone in under 20 minutes and synchronised to a cloud server for real-time tracking of disease progression and surveillance.
- AI and Machine Learning solutions: to distinguish nucleic acid amplification reaction based on its molecular signatures. This gives rise to affordable solutions for detecting infectious disease and AMR by increasing outputs of existing data without changing the PCR technologies themselves.
- Molecular Assay development: specialising in a broad range of amplification chemistries and methods, including assay design, validation and sample testing.
