PHITBAC project starts activities to develop nanophotonic biosensors for the diagnosis and management of bacterial infections

by Virginia Greco

The kick-off meeting of the PHITBAC project, led by group leader Prof. Laura Lechuga, took place at the ICN2 on Friday 26 December. The project aims to develop point-of-care devices for fast and reliable diagnosis of bacterial infectious diseases and identification of potential antibiotic resistance.

PHITBAC has warmed up the engines and started its scientific activities with a kick-off meeting held at the ICN2 on December 26, in which participated representatives of the six members of the consortium that proposed the project: two public research centres —the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), the National Biotechnology Centre of Madrid (CNM-CSIC)—, two public hospitals located in Barcelona —Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Research Centre (VHIR), Hospital del Mar-Medical Research Institute (IMIM)— and two biotech companies —Aptus Biotech and Biomedal.

Coordinated by Prof. Laura Lechuga, leader of the ICN2 NanoBiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group and worldwide renown expert in photonics nanotechnology for biosensing applications, PHITBAC project aims to introduce a new, disruptive and versatile point-of-care nanobiosensor technology for the whole diagnosis and clinical management of bacterial infectious diseases. A device based on nanophotonic biosensors will be designed, built and tested, which will allow rapid detection of the presence of the most relevant pathogenic bacteria in the biological sample under examination. It will also permit the identification of potential antibiotic resistance –an increasing problem in bacterial infections treatment— and a personalized monitoring and evaluation of antimicrobial therapy effectivity.

PHITBAC devices will provide rapid (15-30 mins) and highly reliable diagnostics of various bacterial infections at the same time, without the need for time-consuming and complex processing of the samples nor handling in specialised laboratories. Nanophotonic biosensors offer outstanding sensitivities for multiplexed label-free analysis and a unique potential for integration in miniaturized and portable devices.

Furthermore, this project seeks the complete implementation of novel in-vitro diagnostic (IVD) technology with a clear vision on technology transfer and exploitation. For that, thanks to the partnership with the companies and the hospitals involved in the project, high-quality bioreceptors, especially designed for rapid and cost-efficient mass production, will be manufactured and the prototype device will be fully validated for real clinical settings, such as hospital emergency rooms and intensive care units.

The PHITBAC project is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and by the European Union under the "NextGenerationEU, Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience” programme.

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Participants of the PHITBAC kick-off meeting: (from left to right) Dr Sonia Luque (IMIM), Dr Juanjo González (VHIR), Dr Juan Pablo Horcajada (IMIM), Dr Juan Carlos Ruíz (VHIR), Dr Angel Cebolla (Biomedal SL), Prof. Laura M. Lechuga (ICN2), Dr Luis Ángel Fernández (CNB-CSIC), Prof. Milagro Montero (IMIM), Dr Miguel Moreno (Aptus Biotech), Dr Maria Soler (ICN2), Yago Margolles (CNB-CSIC), Dr Mari Carmen Estévez (ICN2), Dr Víctor González (Aptus Biotech), Alejandro Astúa (ICN2).