Researchers created a microchip antibiotic-testing platform that can determine the best drug to use against an infection in about seven hours, according to research published in Biomicrofluidics.
Mechanical engineers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology built the platform to create more accurate and efficient antibiotic-susceptibility testing.
The system not only identifies the ideal medication to treat a bacterial infection, but can also measure bacterial growth based on color scales and identify the minimum dose needed to prevent further growth.
"Trying to figure what drug to use at what dosage, in the fastest time possible, is key in successfully treating bacterial infections," Jessie Jeon, PhD, one of the study's authors, said in a press release. "We can see that our assembly works pretty robustly with a single drug and have also shown it can work with two drugs; now we want to further optimize the application to combinatorial drugs."