029/2018 Provision of Disposable Reagent Cartridges for an In-Vitro Diagnostic Device - AWARD

Urinary tract infection (UTI) 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. As the patient has ongoing symptoms, the GP will sometimes prescribe antibiotics before the result is back.

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.

The University now seeks the supply of bespoke cartridges that can be used for testing patient samples.

It is expected that the bespoke cartridges will be supplied within 24 months. The key requirements for the cartridge design have already been established at UWE. The cartridge will enable simultaneous measurement of 3 bacteria and one marker of inflammation from a urine sample. It will incorporate storage of the necessary reagents for the assay, so the measurement can take place by simply adding a urine sample (1 and 10mls) to the cartridge.