Burlingame, Calif., May 16, 2019 — Inflammatix announced today that it has been named a finalist for the American Association for Clinical Chemistry’s (AACC) Disruptive Technology Award for its rapid HostDx™ tests, which read the immune system to improve diagnosis of acute infections and sepsis. Inflammatix is one of three finalists that will present its technology at the 71st AACC Annual Scientific Meeting in Anaheim, Calif., during a special session on August 5, 2019.
“We are honored to be selected as a finalist for this prestigious award,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “This recognition underscores the power of our approach of evaluating the body’s immune system to diagnose infections and sepsis faster and more accurately than current methods.”
Inflammatix’s first test, HostDx Sepsis, uses proprietary algorithms to diagnose the host response to infection. Specifically, it measures the expression of multiple immune genes to identify the presence of bacterial or viral infections and to determine if a patient has or is likely to develop sepsis. In contrast, traditional diagnostic approaches look for blood-based pathogens, but most infections – and nearly half of sepsis cases – are negative for bloodstream pathogens. Inflammatix is developing a proprietary cartridgebased point-of-need system that will produce rapid sample-to-answer results in 30 minutes or less and plans to seek FDA clearance for the HostDx Sepsis test.
Sepsis, a life-threatening condition in which the body’s immune system becomes dysregulated fighting an infection, kills more than 250,000 people in the United States each year and is estimated to cause or contribute to over five million deaths worldwide annually.
AACC’s Disruptive Technology Award recognizes innovative testing solutions that improve patient care through diagnostic performance or access to high quality testing.
About Inflammatix
Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is developing rapid tests that read the immune system, enabling improved patient care and reducing major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute bacterial and viral infections and sepsis, where its HostDx™ tests will allow physicians to quickly get the right treatments to the right patients, reducing morbidity and mortality, health system costs, and antibiotic resistance. While current tests diagnose infections by “finding the bug” – an approach that misses the 70% of infections that never enter the bloodstream – Inflammatix evaluates the body’s immune system response to provide more accurate and faster diagnosis. Its scientific approach has been validated in over 20 independent cohorts involving over 1,000 patients and published in leading medical journals. The privately held, Burlingame, Calif.-based company is funded by Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, the Stanford-StartX Fund and Think.Health Ventures. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).
Media Contacts
For Inflammatix:
Tracy Morris
[email protected]
650-380-4413