Identification of multidrug resistance requires cultures, which significantly delays the time until appropriate therapeutics can be provided. This may have serious health consequences, including sepsis and death in the case of bloodstream infections. While broad-spectrum antibiotics may potentially be prescribed before a diagnosis is achieved, this risks the promotion of further antimicrobial resistance. Thus, there is a need for a new approach that can rapidly enrich and purify bacteria from large-volume complex samples (e.g. blood) and determine antimicrobial susceptibility from a small number of pathogen cells. Our lab is developing innovative methods to deliver antimicrobial susceptibility results within hours instead of days.
Funding: NIAID (R01AI180302, R01AI153564, R21AI151929)
Peer-reviewed publications:
Alie M. Bogusch, Evan H. Benke, Jordan T. Ruit, Abraham A. Akinladenu, David J. Boegner, and Ian M. White, Automated enrichment of DNA biomarkers from large-volume samples: detection of B. burgdorferi cell free DNA in urine, Analytical Chemistry, 98, 3951–3958, 2026. DOI:10.1021/acs.analchem.5c06280.
Shannon H. Hilton, Connor Hall, Hieu T. Nguyen, Micaela L. Everitt, Philip DeShong, and Ian M. White, Phenotypically distinguishing ESBL-producing pathogens using paper-based surface enhanced Raman sensors, Analytica Chimica Acta, 1127, 207-216, 2020. DOI:10.1016/j.aca.2020.06.068.
Hieu T. Nguyen, Shweta Ganapati, David Watts, Imaly A. Nanayakkara, Philip DeShong, Ian M. White, A new trimodal phenotypic reporter of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase activity, ACS Infectious Disease, 5,1731-1737, 2019. DOI:10.1021/acsinfecdis.9b00138.