Innovation
Extending the frontiers of
UK science and industry
Fresh light on diagnosis
Synthetic biology delivers a new way to fight antibiotic resistance
A
Matt Hicks
Chief Technology Officer
of Linear Diagnostics
Dr Matthew Hicks is Chief
Technology Officer of Linear
Diagnostics, and co-inventor of
the company’s core technology
ntimicrobial resistance is a
global health concern, but
the statistics are increasingly
close to home. In the UK
around 5,000 people a year
die from antibiotic-resistant bacteria,
although some experts believe the
figure is much higher.
The obvious solution is to develop
novel antibiotics – but the way these
antibiotics are used will have to
change as well. Unnecessary or
inappropriate antibiotic prescribing
fuels the development of resistant
strains, and rapid diagnostics have
been highlighted as tools that will
reduce this problem.
Solutions from
synthe tic biology
University of Birmingham spinout
Linear Diagnostics has developed
a diagnostic platform for antibiotic
infection and resistance, based on a
novel application of linear dichroism,
a form of spectroscopy that uses linearly
polarised light to measure the alignment
of long molecules in a liquid.
Long molecules in solution tend
to align themselves with the direction
of flow of the liquid. In these
circumstances, if linearly polarised
light is shone through the liquid, it
provides a predictable, repeatable
signal. This signal will change if the
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