Test to Protect is a project run at the University of Reading to develop rapid, Point-of-Care (PoC) systems for antibiotic resistance testing.
Antibiotic treatment is most often prescribed before identifying the organisms involved and whether the bacteria already have resistance to the drug. This is because traditional methods to determine antibiotic resistance takes 24-72 hours. This can lead to treatment failure and increased cost of repeat consultation. Relentlessly increasing and high resistance rates result in effective antibiotics being taken out of use.
Test to Protect is developing rapid, Point-of-Care (PoC) testing system for antibiotic resistance prior to treatment. This will make better use of the antibiotics we have and provide improved methods to find new ones.
