Pictura Bio: Machine learning enhanced universal point of care diagnosis platform for infectious diseases leveraging novel fluorescent labelling of enveloped pathogens - developing the Alpha Prototype.

UK-based start-up PicturaBio Ltd will transform existing approaches to human virus detection, through the development of an infectious disease diagnosis platform, leveraging PicturaBio's unique pathogen identification technology, IRIS, for "facial recognition of pathogens". Infectious diseases caused by pathogens like influenza, parainfluenza, and respiratory syncytial virus cause many thousands of deaths annually. Current testing workflows rely heavily on centralised laboratories, with testing capacity and logistics networks struggling during peak demand spikes. Current diagnostic approaches for virus detection, such as virus culture, RT-PCR or antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests, are often hampered by long waiting times, or limited sensitivity and specificity, and cannot rapidly respond to new outbreaks. As a result, there is an urgent need for decentralising testing solutions, moving testing away from laboratories to the point of care that provides straightforward, fast, and sensitive viral detection methods. This project focuses on the development of PicturaBio's diagnostic platform, providing a step-change in cost reduction and delivering laboratory quality results at the point of care. With IRIS small enough to fit on a desk, this technology can be rolled out to a wide variety of users such as emergency departments, GPs, and pharmacies. Patients can be diagnosed rapidly at low cost, which will help to reduce antibiotic overuse, protect vulnerable patients, and reduce hospital stays by enabling earlier treatment. Suitable for utilisation by non-clinical experts beyond clinical settings, the platform can be rapidly deployed, improving global accessibility to ultra-fast, accurate infectious disease diagnostics for routine use as well as rapid response to new outbreaks.