Overview
- The University of Reading–led team, in results published Tuesday, March 31 in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, found the test delivers answers in an average of 5.85 hours with 96.95% agreement across seven first-line antibiotics.
- The assay skips overnight culture by dipping a microcapillary cartridge loaded with different antibiotics into urine and using optical imaging to see if bacteria grow or stop in each tube.
- A validation on 90 duplicate samples showed 98.75% agreement between urine stored with boric acid preservative and without it, indicating the method fits routine collection workflows.
- Researchers and clinicians say same-day matching of the right drug could reduce needless antibiotic use, slow resistance, and lower the chance a UTI advances to severe illness such as sepsis.
- Astratus, a University of Reading spinout, is preparing to commercialize the validated prototype, though the reports do not indicate regulatory clearance or widespread clinical deployment yet.