Oct 4, 2018
Burlingame, Calif., October 4, 2018 — Inflammatix today announced that it will present findings from two studies demonstrating the ability of its HostDx™ Fever test to distinguish bacterial from viral infections on multiple rapid laboratory platforms that can deliver results in under 30 minutes. The new data will be presented at the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) IDWeek™ 2018 taking place October 3-7, 2018, in San Francisco.
The HostDx Fever test is designed to help physicians differentiate acute bacterial and viral infections quickly and accurately in outpatient and urgent care settings. It uses gene expression data and bioinformatics to read the immune system response, rather than look for specific pathogens. The new data at IDWeek 2018 will demonstrate the company’s successful translation of its core technology onto rapid isothermal and PCR laboratory platforms, which can enable rapid results at or near the point of care.
“Acute infections are among the most frequent diagnoses in outpatient care settings, but they are challenging to diagnose, and current testing methods are inaccurate or too slow. As a result, infections are often blindly – and incorrectly – treated with antibiotics,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “The HostDx Fever test is designed to help physicians quickly diagnose acute bacterial and viral infections in order to improve patient care, reduce healthcare costs and tackle the growing public health problem of antimicrobial resistance. The data we are presenting at IDWeek 2018 show that the genes comprising the HostDx Fever test can be accurately and rapidly measured across multiple rapid laboratory methods, potentially enabling broader access to the test.”
The following abstracts will be presented as posters at the IDWeek 2018 conference:
Title: Taqman multiplex PCR of a seven-gene host biomarker to discriminate bacterial from viral infections (Abstract #72231)
Presenter: Wensheng Nie, Ph.D., Inflammatix
Date/Time: Saturday, October 6, 12:30-1:45 p.m. Pacific Time
Session: Diagnostics: Biomarkers and Novel Approaches
Location: Moscone Convention Center, Hall C, Poster #2016
Title: An ultra-rapid host response assay to discriminate between bacterial and viral infections using quantitative isothermal gene expression analysis (Abstract #72198)
Presenter: David C. Rawling, Ph.D., Inflammatix
Date/Time: Saturday, October 6, 12:30-1:45 p.m. Pacific Time
Session: Diagnostics: Biomarkers and Novel Approaches
Location: Moscone Convention Center, Hall C, Poster #2021
About the HostDx Fever Test
The HostDx Fever test helps determine whether a suspected infection is likely bacterial or viral. The test uses novel, validated technology to measure the expression levels of select host immune genes in blood samples and then applies proprietary algorithms to produce clinically actionable and timely results. The HostDx Fever test’s technology has been validated in 24 cohorts of over 1,000 patients with suspected infection. The test has demonstrated a high sensitivity for bacterial infection (94 percent) and high negative predictive value (97 percent) and its performance was consistent regardless of the infection subtype, clinical setting and time of the year.
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 Sepsis and HostDx Fever 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 percent 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, Think.Health, Stanford-StartX Fund and grants from the federal government. 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
Apr 10, 2018
Burlingame, Calif., April 10, 2018 — Inflammatix announced today that it has been named a finalist in Fast Company’s 2018 World Changing Ideas Awards for its novel HostDx™ tests, which read the immune system to tackle the global health problems of antibiotic resistance and sepsis. The annual award honors businesses, policies, projects and concepts that offer innovative solutions to the issues facing humanity. Finalists and winners will be highlighted in the May issue of the print magazine, which hits newsstands on April 17.
“We are deeply honored to receive this recognition from Fast Company, which is recognized worldwide as an authority on innovation,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “This recognition emphasizes our commitment to harnessing the power of the immune system to improve patient care and resolve major clinical and public health challenges.”
Inflammatix is working with clinical diagnostics instrument partners to commercialize its HostDx tests, which will initially target acute bacterial and viral infections and sepsis. Rather than look for specific pathogens or biomarkers of disease, which lack accuracy and speed, the HostDx tests measure the genomic “fingerprint” of the host response to disease and apply proprietary machine learning algorithms to accurately identify whether an infection is bacterial or viral – and thus whether antibiotics are required – and to determine if the patient is likely to have or develop sepsis.
About the World Changing Ideas Awards
World Changing Ideas is one ofFast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors chooses winners and finalists based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With a goal of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Companydraws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start work on solving the problems that affect us all.
Now in its second year, the World Changing Ideas Awards showcases 12 winners and more than 200 finalists. A panel of eminent judges selected winners from a pool of more than 1,300 entries in 12 categories, with entries from across the globe.
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, Stanford-StartX Fund and grants from the federal government. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.comand follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).
Media Contacts
For Inflammatix:
Tracy Morris
[email protected]
650-380-4413
Feb 15, 2018
Bioinformatics Approach Forms the Basis of Inflammatix’s HostDx™ Sepsis Test
Burlingame, Calif., February 15, 2018 — Inflammatix announced findings from a new study published today in Nature Communications that suggest that diagnosing and determining who will likely develop sepsis can be improved with a data-driven approach that measures the immune system response to severe infection. A gene expression model used in the new study is a core component of HostDx™ Sepsis, a rapid molecular test that Inflammatix is developing to improve sepsis diagnosis. Sepsis, a dysregulated immune system response to infection, kills more than 250,000 Americans and costs the healthcare system more than $27 billion annually in the United States.
“Current tools for sepsis identification and triage are imprecise, which often results in patients being overtreated or undertreated and wastes significant healthcare resources. The findings in this new study suggest that measuring immune dysregulation could indicate infection severity and significantly improve sepsis diagnosis,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., lead author of the new paper, and cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “The technology used in this study forms the basis of our HostDx Sepsis test, which we plan to bring into hospitals and urgent care settings as a rapid test to help reduce the global burden of sepsis.”
The new study evaluated gene-based models designed to accurately predict 30-day mortality in patients with sepsis at the time of enrollment. The models were developed and evaluated on over 20 cohorts from clinical studies involving a wide range of populations and settings. Inflammatix holds exclusive license to a pending patent from Stanford University for the institution’s gene expression model from the new study.
The Stanford gene set licensed by Inflammatix, when combined with clinical severity scores (the current standard of care), demonstrated a substantial increase in prognostic power for 30-day mortality (i.e., an AUC increase of 9.8 percent, from 77 percent to 87 percent). This would translate to an ability to rule out approximately 20 percent more sepsis cases, compared to clinical severity scores alone. Such findings suggest this approach could help save substantial resources by avoiding unnecessary care.
“This new research, combined with previously published data, demonstrate the HostDx Sepsis test’s ability to identify the presence of bacterial and/or viral infection and determine the likelihood of a patient having or developing sepsis. We believe this powerful combination will strongly drive the economic value of HostDx Sepsis, a point we look forward to validating in interventional trials,” said Dr. Sweeney.
About the HostDx Sepsis Test
The HostDx Sepsis test helps diagnose sepsis by detecting the presence of a bacterial and/or viral infection and determining its severity. The test uses novel, validated technology to measure the expression levels of numerous host immune genes in blood samples and then applies proprietary algorithms to produce clinically actionable and timely results. The HostDx Sepsis test’s technology has been validated in 20 cohorts of over 1,000 patients, representing diverse populations and settings. The test has demonstrated a high sensitivity for organ dysfunction associated with sepsis (95 percent) and high negative predictive value (>98 percent).
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, Stanford-StartX Fund and the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). 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
Dec 19, 2017
BURLINGAME, Calif., Dec. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Inflammatix, a molecular diagnostics company that is developing rapid tests that read the immune system to improve disease diagnosis, today announced that Oliver Liesenfeld, M.D., has been appointed chief medical officer. Dr. Liesenfeld, a veteran of the diagnostics industry, comes to the company from Roche Molecular Diagnostics, where he served as chief medical officer since 2012.
Dr. Liesenfeld will oversee the clinical studies and regulatory approvals needed to commercialize Inflammatix’s HostDx™ tests, which will initially target acute infections and sepsis, respectively. These tests use the company’s novel, validated, bioinformatics-based approach of reading the genomic “fingerprint” of the host response to disease to quickly determine if a patient has a bacterial and/or viral infection – and thus, whether they need antibiotics – and to measure the severity of disease to determine if the patient is likely to have or develop sepsis.
“We are delighted to have an individual of Dr. Liesenfeld’s experience and stature join our team as we transform infectious disease diagnosis and resolve the pressing public health challenges of antibiotic resistance and sepsis,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “With his extensive background in diagnostics, particularly in infectious diseases, and his broad regulatory experience, he will be key to helping us achieve our ambitious goals.”
Dr. Liesenfeld has over 25 years of industry and academic experience in the diagnostics field, with a focus on molecular diagnostics and infectious diseases. As chief medical officer at Roche Molecular Diagnostics, he built a state-of-the-art medical department and led the company’s clinical science, medical affairs, clinical operations and biometrics functions. His team designed and executed numerous clinical trials to support regulatory approvals and commercialization of the company’s broad product portfolio, including the LightCycler® SeptiFast test for use in sepsis diagnosis. Prior to Roche, Dr. Liesenfeld served as associate professor of Medical Microbiology and Infection Immunology at the Charite Medical School in Berlin, Germany, where his research focused on the immune response to infections. He holds an M.D. and a doctoral (Dr. med) degree from the Free University of Berlin, Germany and completed his residency in medical microbiology and infection epidemiology at the Charite Medical School, Berlin. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at Stanford University. Dr. Liesenfeld has authored more than 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals and more than 30 book chapters.
“I believe that a data-driven, bioinformatics approach that measures patients’ immune response represents the future of improved diagnosis for numerous diseases and conditions,” said Dr. Liesenfeld. “I am excited to join Inflammatix and advance their groundbreaking work in acute infections and sepsis, where current testing methods are inaccurate or too slow. I look forward to bringing their HostDx tests into the clinic where they can support the improved management of patients, helping physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients.”
About Inflammatix
Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is developing rapid tests that use bioinformatics and machine learning to 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 many infections because they 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 38 cohorts involving over 2,400 patients and published in leading medical journals. The privately held, Burlingame, Calif.-based company is funded by Khosla Ventures, Stanford-StartX Fund and the U.S. government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).
Media Contact:
Tracy Morris
[email protected]
650-380-4413
