028/2018 Diagnostic Instrument for the Detection of UTIs - AWARD

UWE now seeks the supply of a bespoke instrument for detection of Urinary tract infection (UTI) which is a common and unpleasant problem affecting thousands of people. It leads to painful symptoms and time off work, and sometimes significant complications, such as kidney damage. GPs diagnose UTI in patients based on their symptoms. Often they will also check a urine sample for infecting bacteria, and for white blood cells, which show the patient's body is generating an inflammatory reaction to the infection. Current methods to look for bacteria and inflammation are slow and sometimes unreliable- it can take three days to get a result for a urine sample sent to a microbiology laboratory. One fluidic cartridge will be used for each patient test and it will be docked with the instrument when measurement is required. The measurement process for each biomarker involves a magneto-immunoassay. The instrument will perform the following main functions (1) control of sample collection and preparation process, (2) control of magnetic particles to capture the biomarkers, (3) measurement of bound magnetic particles, and (4) the use of an algorithm to convert output of measurement to biomarker concentration.