Medical implants are an essential part of modern medicine and more than 20M implant surgeries will be performed annually by 2030. Unfortunately, more implants means more infections. By 2050, infections are projected to be the leading cause of death with over 10M deaths per year. Action against infections needs to be swift and decisive, with a large need for faster and more accurate diagnostic tools. Symcel delivers cutting-edge research on this with our innovative product, the calScreener™.

CLINICAL APPLICATIONS
Detection

Detect metabolism of aerobes, anaerobes and fungi even if they are not growing

Identification

Quickly identify organisms from their metabolic readout

AST

Fast and accurate susceptibility profiles for clinical microbes

Research showing 10x Faster Detection

Detection of A. baumannii clinical isolate at 2hrs

Faster Detection

Prosthetic joint infections are traditionally very difficult to detect and can take a long time to prepare and culture for traditional diagnostic tests. Research conducted using the calScreener we can increase the speed of detection by a factor of 10.

 

The calScreener is able to detect the metabolism of any clinical isolate, including difficult-to-grow organisms such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis or anaerobes.

 

Earlier diagnosis would mean earlier treatments and a better outcomes for patients.

Accurate Identification

The metabolic readout from the calScreener™ is displayed as a trace of the metabolism over time. These traces are like fingerprints for different microbial species and have been used in research studies to accurately identify clinical organisms without the need for mass spectrometry or a battery of phenotypic tests.

metabolic profiles

Fast AST

Discover the true effect of antimicrobials within hours. Rapid AST with single antibiotics down to as first as 2 hours and an average of 6 hours for combination testing results. Using metabolic readouts, you will be able to determine if an antimicrobial is really killing a microbe or simply repressing the growth. Research by independent labs is showing how this could help to quickly tailor treatments in the clinic to administer the most appropriate drugs to the patient. The calScreener provides more value than just fast results. In a study published recently, researchers at the University of Copenhagen showed that the calScreener™ offered superior prediction of treatment outcomes when compared with traditional methods.

CMI
Journal of Antimicrobial

E. coli treated with Meropenem

Fast AST

How does Symcel deliver?

The calScreener™ is based on well established microcalorimetry technology but we are the first company to develop an instrument specifically tailored to the microbiology and cell biology markets. Microcalorimetry allows us to measure the total metabolism of a sample with extremely high sensitivity. Metabolic activity can then be correlated to a microbial infection. Treatment protocols could then be quickly defined in parallel as different drugs could be tested and compared in the calScreener™. One of the ways that we are able to deliver such rapid diagnosis is how the calScreener™ is able to easily accept difficult samples and organisms. The calScreener™ works by measuring heat flow which removes a lot of the barriers that are present with traditional culture and optical-based approaches. The calScreener™ does not rely on light scattering so it is able to detect metabolism in completely opaque samples such as blood or even physical objects such as tissue or implant samples. If an infection is caused by a difficult-to-grow organism, the calScreener™ will detect it early. This is because we don’t have to culture, purify and wait for visible signs of growth before we can offer a diagnosis. Simply add your sample to the calScreener™ and wait for the first signs of metabolic activity.

 

The current version of the calScreener is for research use only (RUO).

What does this mean?

By pioneering a novel, microcalorimetry-based method for research into infection diagnostics, we pushing towards a future where patients with infections can be detected and diagnosed quickly.

 

Research that saves lives

As in many medical applications, speed is critical for positive outcomes for patients and saving lives. Our mission is to make sure that patients do not die because they were waiting for a positive culture before an accurate diagnosis could be made.

 

Freeing up resources

In the future, the calScreener™ could allow hospitals to significantly free up resources. Fast and accurate diagnostics mean that patients will need much shorter in-hospital treatments. However, the calScreener method is also much less labour intensive than traditional approaches. Once you have prepared and added your sample to the calScreener, you can simply leave it running in the background until metabolism has been detected. Readouts are continuous and automatic meaning that multiple tests can be done in parallel while laboratory staff are freed up to work elsewhere.

What people are saying

I foresee the calScreener™ to be an extremely important tool for treating and preventing chronic infections.

Professor Thomas Bjarnsholt – Specialising in chronic infections
Thomas Bjarnsholt

The calScreener™ is uniquely positioned to solve the need for customised treatments.

Professor Christian Giske – Chair of EUCAST
christian giske