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A device with the potential to revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis has been unveiled at an Imperial College/Royal Institution Technology vs Infectious Disease summit showcasing the best in British technology in combating global infection.

Sepsis is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by bloodstream infections which can lead to multiple organ failure, proving fatal in ~6 million people worldwide and 44,000 people in the UK each year. Currently, diagnosis of sepsis can take several days; the novel, point of care LiDia^TM test uses semiconductor-based genomic analysis technology to detect up to 95% of sepsis-causing infections within 2-3 hours.

The technology which forms the basis of this test has been developed by , DNA Electronic’s Founder, Executive Chairman and Regius Professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial, and has a wide range of potential applications. The À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ Imperial BRC has supported multiple collaborations to investigate semiconductor technology in a variety of clinical conditions, including HIV. In 2016, a study led by , published in the journal showed that it was possible to detect HIV in a drop of blood on a device as small as a USB stick, producing the result in less than 30 minutes. Although further development is required, this test has great potential as a point-of-care diagnostic device, particularly in environments without access to laboratory equipment, and could be developed to detect multiple infections simultaneously.