the sixth most common reason for hospitalization
infants are most prominently at risk and have a high mortality rate
caused by the body's response to pathogens in the bloodstream
In order to ensure that the proper amount of antibiotics is given to infants at birth
a more efficient method of diagnosing any pathogens in the bloodstream is needed.
This information can be crucial for doctors in the ICU, allowing them to make more
informed decisions on what antibiotics to administer to infants
Based on the mother's medical history, infants are administered antibiotics at birth due to the fact there is no quick way of diagnosing if there is bacteria present in the bloodstream.
Photo by Raghavendra V. Konkathi on Unsplash
Other methods take 6 hours to a few days to detect sepsis
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
Some tests require larger volumes of whole-blood, which makes the technology infeasible for neonates
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
To create a portable, handheld fluorescence microscope to be used in a clinical setting to classify pathogen DNA blood samples for diagnosis of sepsis that enables fast and efficient analysis of samples