AMBROSIA – A MULTIPLEXED PLASMO-PHOTONIC BIOSENSING PLATFORM FOR RAPID AND INTELLIGENT SEPSIS DIAGNOSIS AT THE POINT-OF-CARE

• HORIZON-RIA PROJECT GRANTED FOR THE EARLY DETECTION OF SEPSIS AT THE POINT-OF-CARE
• DISRUPTIVE SOLUTION FOR SEPSIS DIAGNOSIS AT THE POINT OF CARE THAT WILL OFFER MULTIPLEXED (WITHIN A SINGLE TEST)

(IN BRIEF)The AMBROSIA project has been granted under the call of “Digital and emerging technologies for competitiveness and fit for the green deal” and the topic “HORIZON-CL4-2022-DIGITAL-EMER-GING-01-03: Advanced multi-sensing systems”. The project aims to develop a portable diagnostic unit for intelligent sepsis diagnosis at the point-of-care (PoC) using real-time and label-free sensor technologies incorporated in PoC platforms. Sepsis is a life-threatening whole-body inflammatory reaction caused by a severe infection and is responsible for 11 million deaths worldwide every year. AMBROSIA envisions a disruptive solution for sepsis diagnosis at the point of care that will offer multiplexed quantification of multiple protein biomarkers and bacteria within a few minutes, providing also real-time disease stage classification and enabling a rapid and precise decision making for medical actuation. The project is coordinated by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and is scheduled to run for 4 years bringing together 12 partners from strong industrial and academic organizations.

(PRESS RELEASE) ATHENS, 9-May-2023 — /EuropaWire/ — AMBROSIA (http://ambrosia-h2022.eu/) is a new ambitious HORIZON Research and Innovation Action project that was granted under the call of “Digital and emerging technologies for competitiveness and fit for the green deal” and the topic “HORIZON-CL4-2022-DIGITAL-EMER-GING-01-03: Advanced multi-sensing systems”. AMBROSIA envisions to develop a portable diagnostic unit for intelligent sepsis diagnosis at the point-of-care (PoC).

Sepsis is a life-threatening whole-body inflammatory reaction caused by a severe infection. With mortality rates around 35%, sepsis is responsible for 11 million deaths worldwide every year. In economic terms, sepsis represents a primary cost of hospitalization in developed regions, expending up to €9 billion/year only in Germany. The window of opportunity for sepsis management is in hours: the chance of survival drops by 7.6% each hour of disease progression until an appropriate treatment is started. However, early and accurate sepsis detection is hampered due to: i) complex diagnostic criteria requiring screening of multiple targets, (ii) time-consuming methods for identifying the bacterial causes of sepsis, (iii) specimen transfers in centralized laboratories. Meeting this challenging framework can only be accomplished through the adoption of real-time and label-free sensor technologies incorporated in PoC platforms.

This is exactly where AMBROSIA steps in to transform integrated plasmo-photonic RI sensors into a disruptive solution for sepsis diagnosis at the point of care that will offer multiplexed (within a single test) quantification of multiple protein biomarkers and bacteria within a few minutes, providing also real-time disease stage classification and enabling a rapid and precise decision making for medical actuation. Specifically, AMBROSIA objectives include:

1. Development of multi-channel label-free CMOS plasmo-photonic sensors with high-sensitivity and resilience to noise.
2. Hetero-integration of InP-on-SiN through micro-transfer printing (μTP).
3. Development of an AI-based electro-optical read-out exploiting ultra-low power photonic Deep Neural Networks for disease classification.
4. Development of a PoC sepsis diagnostic unit.
5. Experimental validation of AMBROSIA sepsis diagnostic system with real samples.

The project is coordinated by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and is scheduled to run for 4 years bringing together 12 partners strategically compiled from strong industrial and academic organizations including: (a) 4 universities, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR), University of Bourgogne (FR), University of Southampton (UK), and University of Ioannina (GR), (b) 2 research institutes, the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ES), and the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (ES), and (c) 6 companies, Ligentec (CH), SMART PHOTONICS BV (NL), X-Celeprint (IE), Argotech (CZ), microLIQUID (ES), and Biopix DNA Technology P.C. (GR).

About AMBROSIA

A MULTIPLEXED PLASMO-PHOTONIC BIOSENSING PLATFORM FOR RAPID AND INTELLIGENT SEPSIS DIAGNOSIS AT THE POINT-OF-CARE

Project ID:101093166
Call: HORIZON-CL4-2022-DIGITAL-EMERGING-01
Type of Action: HORIZON-RIA
Start Date: 01 Jan 2023
Duration: 48 months
Estimated Project Cost: €4,999,612.17
Requested EU Contribution: €3,689,509.66

Website: http://ambrosia-h2022.eu/

About BIOPIX-T

BIOPIX DNA TECHNOLOGY P.C. (https://biopix-t.com)  was founded in December 2019 in order to commercialize a novel molecular diagnostic method, developed by the founding team, for the detection of nucleic acids at the point-of-care. The company targets multiple healthcare-diagnostics related markets through the production of standardized assays for detection and monitoring of Infectious Diseases and Companion Diagnostics. Our mission is to offer portable diagnostic devices to every potential end-user, regardless of financial status, geographical location and training.

Media contacts:

Prof. Nikos Pleros (Coordinator)
npleros@csd.auth.gr

Dr. Alexandros Pantazis (BIOPIX-T)
apantazis@biopix-t.com

SOURCE: BIOPIX-T