New Test Targets Bacterial Infections

By Kelley Luedke • April 6, 2016

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According to a recent article in the Minnesota Daily, a team of researchers at the University of Minnesota are working with Mayo Clinic to create a test that would detect bacterial infections in just 10 minutes. Historically, testing for bacterial infections could take up to 72 hours or more, but the goal is to significantly reduce this.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some cases of meningitis can lead to death in as little as a few hours.

Robin Patel, M.D., Director of Mayo’s Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory, and lead on Mayo's project team, said, “If you imagine the person who’s maybe in the physician’s office or the emergency department [for an infection], they’re not going to wait around until the next day to get that result.”

According to Dr. Patel, a quicker, more reliable test could help patients recover more quickly.

“[A better test] can really provide a lot of very useful information in a timely manner that can inform the treatment of the patient and really just tidy up that management in a way that the patient gets on the right antibiotic quickly,” she said.

As the University team works on the complex itself, Patel’s Mayo team tests the tool’s usefulness for clinical questions that physicians would ask, like finding the type of infection and how to treat it.

Read the full article for more information on the test.

Kelley Luedke

Kelley Luedke is a Marketing Channel Manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories. She is the principle editor and writer of Insights and leads social media and direct marketing strategy. Kelley has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2013. Outside of work, you can find Kelley running, traveling, playing with her kitty, and exploring new foods.