Longitude Prize on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)
Longitude Prize on Antimicrobial Resistance (first announced in 2014), revealed its winner at an event in London’s Science Museum : The PA-100 AST System from Sysmex Astrego, is a high-tech, transformative, rapid, point-of-care test for UTIs (Urinary Tract Infection)
The Longitude Prize on AMR intends to incentivise the creation of new diagnostic tests that in a matter of minutes, can identify whether an infection is bacterial and, if so, the right antibiotic to prescribe to slow the spread of antibiotic resistant infections.
The goal is to replace the 2-3-day lab test process that doctors and patients must currently endure, and end “just in case” prescribing that is prevalent as a result, which promotes the development of antibiotic resistance
British government announces the Longitude Prize
Importance of the PA-100 AST System
PA-100 AST System has developed a transformative technology based on a phenotypic test.
This test identifies the bacteria causing the urinary tract infection and performs antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) to determine the effective antibiotic for the specific patient in under 45 minutes.
The test uses a single-use cartridge, in which a millilitre of the urine is added
Bacteria in the urine are trapped in over 10,000 microfluidic traps in parallel arrays and exposed to five different antibiotics at five different concentrations.
The cartridge is inserted into a reader instrument, where bacterial growth is monitored by phase-contrast imaging.
Comparison with Existing Tests
Currently, there are two types of tests available to diagnose urinary infections.
The first one is the urine dipstick test that can be done as a point-of-care test.
Point-of-care diagnostic tests are tests that can be performed in the clinic, emergency departments, hospital wards, or pharmacy counters, without the need to send the sample to a laboratory.
The advantage of the dipstick is that results are available in a couple of minutes, which helps doctors decide whether to start antibiotics or not
Unfortunately, accuracy is not more than 50–60%.
Even if the doctor carries out a dipstick despite its limitations, the test doesn’t help the doctor choose the right antibiotic.
For this, the urine sample must be sent to the laboratory for culture.
The culture results take a minimum of 2–3 days.
But the doctor cannot wait 2–3 days to start an antibiotic.
So, even if the doctor sends a urine sample for culture, they still have to start an antibiotic empirically, based on educated guesswork, before the culture results are ready.
By this time, the patient has already completed a full or half course of antibiotics.
Such blind antibiotic prescriptions are a major cause of the antibiotic resistance crisis, especially in countries like India.
Historical Context and Goals of the Longitude Prize
In 1714, the British government announced the Longitude Prize to solve the longitude problem, literally.
To determine the position of a ship, both latitude and longitude are needed.
Latitude was easy to measure by observing the sun, moon, and stars, but longitude was a mystery.
The British government announced the Longitude Prize for an invention that helps calculate longitude.
John Harrison, a watchmaker, invented an ingenious device that could calculate longitude perfectly and won the prize.
300 years after the first Longitude Prize, Britain launched a second Longitude Prize.
The public was asked to vote for a major challenge that needed an immediate solution, such as global warming, food shortages, and water shortages.
The public voted for Antimicrobial Resistance.
A £ 10 million Longitude Prize was announced in 2014.
Of this, £ 2 million was awarded to various innovators to refine their technology.
The final winner receives £ 8 million.
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