Applications
Our pioneering LiDia-SEQ™ DNA platform will be able to test for a range of diseases and will provide vital, actionable information to clinicians at the point-of-need, helping save patients’ lives.
Versatile system
LiDia-SEQ™ combines powerful analytical capability and accurate results with speed and simplicity of use.
Diagnostic tests are in development for multiple healthcare applications where rapid point-of-need diagnostics are of critical need:
- Pathogen identification from whole blood
- Antimicrobial resistance
- Viral and pandemic
- Liquid biopsy for diagnostics and monitoring
SIMPLE
Easy to operate | Providing 24/7 diagnostics
FAST
Results in a few hours | at the point of need
ACCURATE
Highly sensitive and specific
OUR LEADING PROGRAM: SEPSIS/BSI AND AMR
DNAe’s initial focus is on developing infectious disease diagnostics, where speed and DNA sequence information can make the difference between life and death. This includes a range of tests, starting with a groundbreaking test for bloodstream infections (BSI) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which uses whole blood samples to detect and identify infection causing microorganisms that can lead to sepsis.
The diagnostic will rapidly identify what infection a patient has, as well as associated AMR genes. This will provide clinicians with actionable information to help select the appropriate antimicrobial treatment.
SEPSIS
As drug resistant bacteria become more common, so will deaths from life-threatening infections like sepsis, which is the body’s unregulated immune response to a severe bloodstream infection. Sepsis is a medical emergency that requires rapid diagnosis and treatment. Sepsis can lead to multiple organ failure and even death if not recognised and treated promptly.
Despite the best antibiotics and intensive care, sepsis is the primary cause of death from infection. Sepsis cases are increasing, up by between 8% and 13% over the last decade, claiming more lives than bowel and breast cancer combined.1
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- 49M people diagnosed with sepsis every year
- 5,600 people diagnosed every hour
▼▼▼ - Every 2 seconds someone is diagnosed with sepsis
*World Health Organisation, 2024
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- 11M sepsis-related deaths every year
- 1,255 deaths every hour
▼▼▼ - Every 3 seconds someone dies of sepsis
2 MILLION
Annual US sepsis cases
30-50%
Fatality rate
$52.1 BILLION
Annual treatment costs
Sepsis is one of the most expensive conditions treated in hospitals in the United States. From 2016 to 2019, the number of sepsis-related inpatient stays in the United States increased by 20.1 % to 2.1 million stays. Two years later (2021), the number climbed to about 2.5 million sepsis-related inpatient stays, accounting for $52.1 billion or 9.9 % of all hospital costs.2
- References:
- 1 Rudd, Kristina E et al. Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990–2017: analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study.The Lancet, Volume 395, Issue 10219, 200 – 2115.
- 2 An Assessment of Sepsis in the United States and Its Burden on Hospital Care. Content last reviewed September 2024. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
it usually takes between 1-5 days identify the causative microorganism using a blood culture based approach, during which time clinicians have only empirical treatment options.
DNAe’s BSI/AMR test will deliver actionable results, where needed, within hours.
Focused and fast
This one breakthrough test is enough to identify a broad range of possible bloodstream infectious organisms, as well as a selection of antimicrobial resistance genes.
As microbial pathogens may be present at very low concentrations in the blood of infected patients, the BSI/AMR test incorporates a sample preparation stage capable of extracting microbial DNA from a vacutainer of blood, which is subsequently amplified and identified.
By accurately diagnosing infections at an earlier stage, we can help to save the lives of patients.
ONCOLOGY
Also in the development pipeline, DNAe is applying its platform for cancer testing and monitoring. About 1 in 5 people develop cancer in their lifetime. The latest annual data highlight the growing global burden of cancer.
- Estimated 20 million new cancer cases every year
- 9.7 million cancer-related deaths annually
- Worldwide over 35 million new cancer cases are predicted each year by 2050, a 77% increase
*International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), 2024
DNAe’s integrated, sequencing-based technology will bring genomic analysis to the point-of-need, enabling testing to move out of specialist laboratories and closer to the patient. By detecting and sequencing tumor DNA directly from raw blood samples in a matter of hours, DNAe’s platform has the potential to improve cancer care, for example by detecting cancer recurrence earlier and assessing patient response to therapy.
Collaborating with leading clinicians and researchers
The Company collaborates with leading clinicians and researchers in the field. One key collaboration was awarded a UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) by Innovate UK in 2021 built on existing research partnerships between world leading experts Professor Coombes, Emeritus Professor of Medical Oncology, Department of Surgery & Cancer – Faculty of Medicine Imperial College and Professor Jacqui Shaw, Head of the Department of Genetics and Genome Biology and Professor of Translational Cancer Genetics at the University of Leicester.
DNAe and Imperial College London have successfully completed this partnership. The project developed components of a LiDia-SEQ™ compatible liquid biopsy test and demonstrated the potential impact of such a test in improving routine clinical care for breast cancer patients.
