NEWSROOM

Data-biobank Acutelines and Inflammatix, an innovative molecular diagnostics company, are joining forces to improve the early detection of sepsis: a potentially fatal syndrome caused by a dysregulated immune response to infection.

Sunnyvale, Calif., September 13, 2023  — Acutelines and Inflammatix are developing a smart tool to facilitate recognition of sepsis and support clinical decisions in the early phase of the disease. Early recognition of sepsis is hard but can make a significant impact on patient outcomes.

The importance of early recognition
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, annually, 50 million patients were diagnosed with sepsis. The pandemic has led to a steep increase in these numbers. Early recognition of infections and accurate differentiation between viral and bacterial etiology is vital to select effective therapy. On the one hand, each hour of delayed antibiotic treatment introduces additional risk for bacterial infection patients. On the other hand, rampant overuse of antibiotics drives the development of antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria, risking the effectiveness of current antibiotics.

Recent estimates indicate nearly 5 million deaths associated with AMR. Novel precision diagnostic approaches can support balancing the tightrope between overtreating the uninfected and missing the infected patients, thereby impacting society by improving patient outcomes and reducing the socioeconomic burden of sepsis and AMR.

Improving the future of sepsis
The project will approach this diagnostic dilemma by combining health records and biological information with the goal to deliver better clinical decision support for patients with suspected sepsis visiting the emergency department. Blood samples will be collected, and the expressions of genes associated with the immune response to infection will be measured. These biological signals along with clinical record data collected during the patient encounter will be used to derive diagnostic algorithms that can better inform on the presence, type and severity of infection. These signatures will be validated in prospective studies and are planned to be used by physicians to better recognize early sepsis, decide whom to admit and when to administer antibiotics.

Data-biobank Acutelines ensures availability and standardized processing of data and biomaterials from more than five thousand samples from over one thousandpatients. Inflammatix brings expertise in developing machine learning-based algorithms and building rapid point-of-care-based gene expression diagnostics into the collaboration.

Integrating health data in a clinically actionable manner
“Our collaboration will allow us to leverage our expertise in data-banking and research to better understand the dynamics of sepsis. Inflammatix’s proficiency in machine learning and rapid gene expression diagnostics will greatly enhance our efforts to develop a smart, early diagnosis system,” says Dr. Hjalmar Bouma, project leader of Acutelines. Dr. Timothy Sweeney, CEO and co-founder of Inflammatix, added, “Our joint efforts with Acutelines accelerates our mission to further improve sepsis diagnosis by integrating health record data with our biological signature in a clinically actionable manner. ”

Support
The project is supported by Health Holland through a public-private partnership allowance. This support underscores a shared commitment to advancing healthcare and improving patient outcomes. The Acutelines-Inflammatix partnership marks a significant step forward in early sepsis diagnosis, ultimately paving the way towards precision medicine and saving lives.

About Acutelines and Inflammatix

About Acutelines
Acutelines is a leading data-biobank based in the Acute and Emergency Department at University Medical College Groningen (UMCG). Acutelines is committed to improving acute care by developing smart diagnostics and personalized medicine.

About Inflammatix
Inflammatix, Inc., is an innovative molecular diagnostics company based in Sunnyvale, California, USA, developing novel diagnostics that rapidly read a patient’s immune system to improve care and reduce major public health burdens. Inflammatix tests will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care.

Sunnyvale, Calif., July 10, 2023  — Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, announced today the appointment of Heiner Dreismann, PhD, as a member of the company’s board of directors.

Dr. Dreismann brings to Inflammatix more than 35 years of experience in the life sciences and health care industries and is regarded as a pioneer in the early adoption of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique, one of the most ubiquitous technologies in molecular biology and genetics research today. He was CEO of Roche Molecular Systems from 2000-2006 after various leadership roles in Roche’s global Diagnostic Division. Besides Inflammatix, Dr. Dreismann currently serves on several boards of public, private, and non-profit organizations.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Dreismann to the Board. We envision host response-based diagnostics to become ubiquitous as did PCR and couldn’t think of a better person to guide us on our journey. In addition to understanding how to be launch groundbreaking technology, we plan to leverage Heiner’s executive, board and technical experiences to inform strategic decisions as we approach commercialization,” said Inflammatix CEO and Co-Founder Timothy Sweeney, MD, PhD.

Dr. Dreismann commented, “I am so impressed by the Inflammatix approach of immune-based diagnostics, and with the extensive data published to date. Host response diagnostics are poised to finally address significant unmet needs in acute infections, sepsis, and other conditions. I’m excited to help Inflammatix bring their important products to patients worldwide.”

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix, Inc., is an innovative molecular diagnostics company developing novel diagnostics that rapidly read a patient’s immune system to improve care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is acute infections and sepsis, where its tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Sunnyvale, California-based company is backed by top-tier investors including Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, Think.Health Ventures, the Stanford StartX Fund, and OSF Ventures.

Burlingame, Calif., June 15, 2022  — Inflammatix, Inc., a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, announced today the appointment of Purvesh Khatri, PhD, as Chief Scientific Officer. As a co-founder of Inflammatix, Dr. Khatri had previously served as a Scientific Advisor to the company while serving as Associate Professor at Stanford University’s Institute for Immunity, Transplantation, and Infection.

Dr. Khatri possesses more than 15 years of experience in bioinformatics, computational biology, and translational medicine. He is well-known for his work on ontological and pathway analysis of high-throughput molecular, genomics, and proteomics data. Dr. Khatri developed the first ontology tool for analysis of microarray data, named Onto-Express, and has expanded into a suite of web-based open access tools, Onto-Tools.

His most recent work focused on developing computational methods for integrated, multi-cohort analysis of publicly available data to increase sample size, as well as better account for the heterogeneity observed in real world patient populations. Using these methods, he has identified highly specific and sensitive biomarkers for: (1) infectious diseases (sepsis, respiratory infections, tuberculosis), (2) acute solid-organ transplant rejection, and (3) cancer (pancreatic cancer, small cell and non-small cell lung cancer, mesothelioma). Dr. Khatri has authored or co-authored more than 140 papers and holds  30-plus patents.

“Purvesh is a world leader in using complex clinical and biological datasets to develop new diagnostic, prognostic and predictive models, and new therapeutic insights. He has been with us since day one, and we are thrilled to bring him onboard full-time to lead our scientific teams through ever-greater discoveries and translational breakthroughs,” said Inflammatix CEO and Co-Founder Timothy Sweeney, MD, PhD.

Dr. Khatri added, “I am excited to make a full-time commitment to Inflammatix as it continues its work to address important unmet needs in the diagnosis of acute illness. The team has made a great deal of progress since we founded the company, and I am delighted to join them in their next phase of growth and discovery. I am confident that we will continue to innovate to improve upon current diagnostic methods and enable the highest level of patient care possible.”

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix, Inc., is an innovative molecular diagnostics company developing novel diagnostics that rapidly read a patient’s immune system to improve care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is acute infections and sepsis, where its tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Redwood City, Calif.-based company is funded by Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, Think.Health Ventures, the Stanford StartX Fund, and OSF Ventures.

Burlingame, Calif., November 30, 2021  — Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, announced today the appointment of Kian Beyzavi, PhD, as an independent member of the company’s board of directors.

Dr. Beyzavi is a seasoned veteran of the healthcare industry with significant operating experience in the medical device and diagnostics industries, and a focus on leveraging innovative technologies to improve diagnosis and delivery of care. Since starting her career at McKinsey & Company, she has over 25 years of experience as a venture investor, entrepreneur, consultant, and general manager at Rho Ventures, Cubit Software, Medtronic, Abbott Diabetes Care and Novartis Diagnostics. Through her work with multiple stakeholders, Kian has developed a systems-level view of the complex healthcare ecosystem. For the past 10 years she has led a specialized consulting firm advising Fortune 500 companies, startups and others in the areas of strategy, product development, business model innovation, commercialization, and monetization of novel opportunities across life sciences. She is currently a venture partner at Cota Capital, a multistage investment firm.

“We are delighted to welcome Kian to the board. She brings a wealth of vision and deep commercialization experience across diagnostics to her new role with the company. We are drawn to her commitment to leverage technology in improving healthcare and are eager to tap into her insights as we utilize AI and genomics in our mission to improve the diagnosis of infection,” said Inflammatix CEO and Co-Founder Timothy Sweeney, MD, PhD.

Dr. Beyzavi added, “I’m thrilled to join the board. Inflammatix is poised to address important unmet needs in the diagnosis of acute illness, which will result in improved treatment decisions and outcomes. I look forward to working with this innovative team as they bring their breakthrough technologies to market.”

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by reading the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infections and sepsis, where its tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Future tests will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in under 30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, CA-based company is funded by leading medical technology investors including Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, Think.Health Ventures, and others. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).

Third Tranche of BARDA Funding Supports Diagnostic Designed to Read Immune System and Rapidly Diagnose Acute Infection at Point of Care

Burlingame, Calif., November 18, 2021  — Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, announced today a contract extension of $12.1 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. The funding is part of a BARDA contract worth up to $72 million if all options are exercised.

The new funding will be used for continued development and clinical studies to support FDA clearance of the ViraBac EZ^TM test, which reads gene expression patterns in the immune system to identify whether a suspected infection is bacterial or viral. ViraBac EZ is intended to help physicians quickly and accurately determine whether to prescribe antibiotics in ambulatory settings. The test will use a capillary blood sample, ideal for use in primary care, urgent care and other outpatient clinical settings. The funding also supports development of the sample-to-answer, point-of-care system on which ViraBac EZ, and all Inflammatix’s tests, are run. The system is designed to read mRNA and analyze the results using a machine learning algorithm to produce answers in less than 30 minutes.

One of the biggest threats to global health today is antibiotic resistance. Increasing and incorrect antibiotic use leads to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that become more difficult and costly to treat, and more deadly. Today, an estimated 30 percent of antibiotics are inappropriately prescribed to patients because their infections are not obviously bacterial or viral in origin.¹  In addition, almost three million Americans each year become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, with more than 35,000 dying as a direct result.²  New diagnostic methods that can help better direct antibiotics to only those patients that need them will be an important element in combatting antibiotic resistance, ensuring that proven therapies can continue to fight disease and save lives.

“We are enthusiastic about developing a test with the potential to play a large role in addressing antibiotic resistance and ensuring the right medicine gets to the right patients,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “With ViraBac EZ and all of our tests, we are integrating diverse patient cohorts in product development to ensure that our tests will perform in real-world practice across multiple clinical settings, from doctor’s offices and outpatient clinics to the emergency room. This approach is important because the patient response to infection can vary. To successfully change clinical practice, a test must be robust enough to use in different types of patients, infections, and clinical contexts.”

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by reading the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infections and sepsis, where its tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in under 30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, California based company is funded by Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, and Think.Health Ventures, among others. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).

This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under contract number 75A50119C00034.

References

1. Hersh AL, King LM, Shapiro DJ, Hicks LA, Fleming-Dutra KE. Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in US ambulatory care settings, 2010-2015. Clin Infect Dis. 2020; ciaa667, org/10.1093/cid/ciaa667.
2. Antibiotic/Antimicrobial Resistance. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Updated July 20, 2020. Accessed October 7, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/index.html.

Funding Will Support Groundbreaking Development of Sepsis Endotypes Test

Burlingame, Calif., November 11, 2021  — Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, announced today that the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded the company a Small Business Innovation Research (NIH SBIR) Direct-to-Phase II grant of $1.7 million. The funding will be used to develop a rapid diagnostic that will identify immune subtypes (“endotypes”) of sepsis to enable better therapy selection and resource allocation.

Sepsis is defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host immune response to infection. While over 100 clinical trials have been conducted attempting to modulate the immune response to sepsis, there have been no successful approvals of immunomodulatory therapies. Before COVID-19, sepsis claimed approximately 270,000 lives each year in the U.S. and was estimated to be responsible for 20 percent of all deaths worldwide. Severe COVID-19 is also a form of sepsis.

“In sepsis, the body’s immune system becomes dysregulated and starts to damage the patient directly. For decades, physicians have hoped that modulating the immune response to sepsis would improve outcomes, but this hasn’t yet come to pass. We believe that patients with sepsis are too variable for a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to therapy and have shown that identifying immune subtypes of sepsis may allow for a precision approach to treatment,” said Inflammatix CEO and Co-Founder Tim Sweeney, MD, PhD.

He continued, “Fifty years ago, cancer was known primarily by anatomy: breast, skin, blood. The advancement of precision medicine has brought an understanding of each cancer’s unique molecular profile, which has unlocked revolutionary therapies and driven improvements in survival. We believe that critical illness, and sepsis in particular, can benefit from the same approach. We are grateful for the support from the NIH for our novel approach, which may allow the medical community to identify improved treatment regimens, leading to the discovery of new targets or pathways for endotype-specific therapies and/or the repurposing of available drugs. Our ultimate goal is to definitively link a patient sepsis subtype with a therapeutic intervention, to make a meaningful improvement in the treatment of sepsis globally.”

The company’s work has identified three unique sepsis subtypes (“endotypes”) using host immune mRNA signatures, and these endotypes may be differentially responsive to therapy. The NIH funding will enable further development of the endotypes signature and development of a rapid, 30-minute test on the company’s proprietary point-of-care system. Further work will identify existing or new therapeutics that match to the endotypes for clinical study. The company is actively working with therapeutics partners on this approach.

The Inflammatix approach – known as host-response diagnostics – rapidly reads the immune system using multiple mRNA biomarkers and a machine learning algorithm. The company is developing other host-response diagnostic tests that identify the presence and type of infection (viral or bacterial) and predict the risk of severe disease, which could enable physicians to make more informed decisions for patients with acute infection and sepsis. All tests will run on the company’s cartridge-based, point-of-care system in under 30 minutes.

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by reading the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infections and sepsis, where its tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Future tests will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in under 30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, CA-based company is funded by leading medical technology investors including Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, Think.Health Ventures, and others. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).

Burlingame, Calif., March 16, 2021  — Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, announced today the closing of a $102 million Series D round of financing to support development and commercialization of its novel immune response diagnostics portfolio. D1 Capital Partners led the round, with participation from the company’s existing investors, including Northpond Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Think.Health, and OSF Healthcare Ventures.

“We are thrilled to welcome D1 Capital Partners to our strong investor syndicate, and look forward to bringing host response diagnostics to market”

Sepsis caused more than five million deaths annually worldwide before the COVID-19 pandemic, and severe COVID-19 has been recognized as viral sepsis. In addition, antibiotic resistance is directly responsible for more than 700,000 deaths annually worldwide. Traditional methods for diagnosing acute infections are slow and are often inaccurate because they only look for pathogens in the bloodstream, despite the fact that most infections never enter the bloodstream. As a result, patients with suspected infection are often inappropriately treated with antibiotics, contributing to antibiotic resistance. Sepsis is often missed altogether.

Inflammatix’s diagnostics rapidly read the patient’s immune response to infections across multiple mRNA biomarkers using machine learning algorithms. The company’s tests can identify the presence and type of infection (viral or bacterial), and the risk of severe disease, including severe COVID-19, to enable physicians to make more informed decisions. The tests are designed to be run on the company’s sample-to-answer, cartridge-based, point-of-care Myrna™ test system, which produces results in under 30 minutes.

The funds will enable regulatory clearance and global commercialization of the Myrna system, and the InSep™ acute infection and sepsis test, which is designed to enable improved triage and decision-making in the emergency department and other acute care settings. Funds will also support continued development of the company’s pipeline of diagnostic tests, including the ViraBac EZ™ acute infection test. Virabac EZ is designed to be run from a simple fingerstick to identify whether a suspected infection is bacterial or viral, helping physicians in primary care, urgent care, and other outpatient clinical settings to determine when to prescribe antibiotics.

“We are enthusiastic about the transformative potential of Inflammatix’s host response diagnostic approach to significantly improve two major issues in healthcare today: the inefficient, and often inaccurate, diagnosis of infection and sepsis, and the over-prescription of antibiotics,” said James Rogers, Analyst at D1 Capital Partners. “We are delighted to lead this round and look forward to the upcoming commercialization of the first of these novel tests, and to playing a role in the continued development of additional indications for this unique diagnostics approach.”

“We are thrilled to welcome D1 Capital Partners to our strong investor syndicate, and look forward to bringing host response diagnostics to market,” said Inflammatix CEO and Co-Founder Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D. “By quickly providing actionable information about disease, Inflammatix expects to equip physicians to make better clinical decisions that benefit both patients and healthcare systems.”

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by reading the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infections and sepsis, where its tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform, Myrna, in under 30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company is funded by Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, D1 Capital Partners, Think.Health Ventures, the Stanford StartX Fund, and OSF Ventures.

ViraBac EZ has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under Contract No. 75A50119C00034.

About D1 Capital Partners

D1 Capital Partners is a global investment firm that operates across public and private markets. The firm combines the talent and operational excellence of a large, premier asset management firm with the flexible mandate and long-term time horizon of a family office. Founded in 2018 by Daniel Sundheim, D1 focuses on investing in the global internet, technology, telecom, media, consumer, healthcare, financial, industrial, and real estate sectors.

Second Tranche of BARDA Funding Supports Diagnostic Designed to Read Immune System and Rapidly Diagnose Acute Infection at Point of Care

Burlingame, Calif., October 29, 2020  — Inflammatix a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, announced today a contract extension of $7.4 million from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, to further develop its point-of-care test and system to diagnose infection by reading the immune system. The contract is part of a BARDA contract worth up to $72 million, if all options are exercised.

The new funding will support continued development and commercialization of Inflammatix’s sample-to-answer, point-of-care Myrna^TM test system, which is designed to read RNA using machine learning and produce results in under 30 minutes, as well as continued development of the ViraBac EZ^TM test (formerly known as HostDx Fever), which reads gene expression patterns in the immune system to identify whether a suspected infection is bacterial or viral, enabling physicians to quickly and accurately determine when to prescribe antibiotics. The test will use a fingerstick collection and capillary blood sample, and is designed for use in primary care, urgent care and other outpatient clinical settings.

One of the biggest threats to global health today is antibiotic resistance. Increasing and incorrect antibiotic use leads to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that become more difficult and costly to treat, and more deadly.  Today, an estimated 30 percent of antibiotics are inappropriately prescribed to patients because their infections are not obviously bacterial or viral in origin.¹  In addition, almost three million Americans each year become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, with more than 35,000 dying as a direct result.²  New diagnostic methods that can help better direct antibiotics to only those patients that need them will be an important element in combatting antibiotic resistance, ensuring that proven therapies can continue to fight disease and save lives.

“We are pleased to continue to partner with BARDA in the development of our ViraBac EZ test and Myrna instrument. Enabling physicians to make more informed decisions about which patients need antibiotics and which can avoid them has the potential to transform patient care at the point of care,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix.

“In the physician’s office, current methods for diagnosing infections are slow, produce inconsistent results, and/or do not provide the information we need to confidently prescribe treatment,” said David Lin, MD, family medicine specialist with Sutter Health, Sacramento, California. “Having a test that allows us to quickly make more informed decisions about which patients are infected and could benefit from antibiotics would have a meaningful impact on patient care.”

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by reading the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infections and sepsis, where its tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in under 30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company is funded by Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, the Stanford StartX Fund, Think.Health Ventures, and OSF Ventures. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).

This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under Contract No. 75A50119C00034.

References

1. Hersh AL, King LM, Shapiro DJ, Hicks LA, Fleming-Dutra KE. Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in US ambulatory care settings, 2010-2015. Clin Infect Dis. 2020; ciaa667, org/10.1093/cid/ciaa667.
2. Antibiotic/Antimicrobial Resistance. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Updated July 20, 2020. Accessed October 7, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/drugresistance/index.html.

Media Contacts

For Inflammatix:
Mariesa Kemble
[email protected]
608.850.4745

New Data Shows Inflammatix Machine Learning-Based Approach of Reading Immune System is Superior to IL-6 and Other Measures in Predicting Patients at High Risk for Severe COVID-19

Burlingame, Calif., September 29, 2020  — Inflammatix a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, announced today that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded the company up to $1.1 million for further development of a rapid diagnostic that reads the immune system to predict severe respiratory failure risk in COVID-19 patients. The diagnostic is being developed to help physicians make better hospital admission and resourcing decisions for COVID-19 patients at hospital presentation.

The Inflammatix approach – known as host-response diagnostics – rapidly reads the immune system using multiple mRNA biomarkers and a machine learning algorithm. The company is developing other host-response diagnostic tests that identify the presence and type of infection (viral or bacterial), in addition to predicting the risk of severe disease, to enable physicians to make more informed decisions for patients with acute infection and sepsis.

“We are grateful that DARPA has recognized the promise of our host-response approach to benefit COVID-19 patients and caregivers, and we look forward to accelerating development and availability of our CoVerityTM COVID-19 Severity Test as a result of this agreement,” said Inflammatix CEO and Cofounder Tim Sweeney, MD, PhD. “The 5-mRNA classifier for CoVerity was developed on a training set of more than 20 clinical studies and we intend to translate it into a rapid assay that can be used as a clinical tool to help triage patients after diagnosis with COVID-19. Improved triage has the potential to reduce morbidity and mortality while enabling hospitals to allocate resources more effectively.”

The company’s host-response diagnostic approach for predicting COVID-19 severity risk was shown to be superior to clinical biomarkers, including IL-6, in a new study presented last week at the 2020 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection Diseases (ESCMID) Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID).

“While major progress has been made in developing rapid platforms to diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infection, predicting severity in COVID-19 patients remains an unmet medical need,” said Evangelos J. Giamarellos-Bourboulis, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at ATTIKON University General Hospital in Athens, Greece, Chairman of the European Sepsis Alliance, President of the European Shock Society, and lead investigator for the study. “In this study, the host-response approach demonstrated very high accuracy for identifying severe disease in COVID-19 patients and outperformed clinical markers for risk stratification. Existing tools have shown limited accuracy in enabling us to confidently identify high-risk patients early who need close monitoring or discharge non-severe patients to recover at home.”

In this prospective study of 97 patients with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia and blood drawn on the day of admission at ATTIKON University General Hospital in Athens, Greece, CoVerity demonstrated an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of 0.88 (95% CI 0.81-0.95) for identifying patients who developed respiratory failure or died, independent of age, while IL-6 had an AUROC of 0.73 (95% CI 0.62 – 0.85). The new classifier had the highest accuracy among all single biomarkers tested, including IL-6, procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, lactate, and SuPAR.

This agreement is part of DARPA’s efforts to develop platform technologies that can be deployed safely and rapidly to provide the U.S. population with near-immediate protection against emerging infectious diseases and engineered biological weapons, even in cases when the pathogen or infectious agent is unknown.

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by reading the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infections and sepsis, where its tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Future tests will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform, MyrnaTM, in under 30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company is funded by leading medical technology investors including Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, the Stanford StartX Fund, Think.Health Ventures and OSF Ventures. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).

Media Contacts

For Inflammatix:
Mariesa Kemble
[email protected]
608.850.4745

Model Demonstrated Cost Effectiveness in Test Use on Patients Suspected of Acute Respiratory Tract Infections in American Emergency Department Setting

Burlingame, Calif., April 29, 2020 — Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company delivering precision medicine at the point of care, announced the publication of a health economic model that shows use of the company’s HostDx^TM Sepsis test in patients suspected of acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI) in Emergency Departments is cost-effective versus standard-of-care. The study was published today in The Journal of Health Economics and Outcomes Research. The model informs hospital clinicians of the potential clinical and economic benefits of widespread adoption of the HostDx Sepsis test.

“Despite best intentions, current practices for evaluating patients suspected for acute respiratory tract infections are insufficient. Many patients without bacterial infections are overtreated with unnecessary antibiotics and extended hospital stays, while some patients with infections are missed, leading to dire clinical outcomes. This study shows that Inflammatix’s HostDx Sepsis test for the diagnosis of acute infections and sepsis could allow for improved patient outcomes and substantial health system savings” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix.

The publication described a cost impact model comparing the cost of standard of care versus the use of HostDx Sepsis in two hypothetical arms with 1000 patients presenting with symptoms of ARTI in the Emergency Department of an average US hospital. Compared to standard of care, on average, the HostDx Sepsis test arm showed a 0.80 day reduction in hospital ward length of stay (a 36.7% decrease), 1.49 reduction in days of antibiotic treatment (a 29.5% decrease), and a 1.67% decrease in 30-day mortality rate (a 13.64% decrease). Average cost savings were estimated at $1,974 per patient tested and nearly $2 million for the 1000-patient cohort (before considering the price of the HostDx Sepsis test, which has not yet been established).

For each scenario, standard of care and HostDx Sepsis, costs of treatment, hospitalizations, medications and outpatient visits were considered. HostDx Sepsis produces three scores for each patient: the likelihood of a bacterial infection; the likelihood of a viral infection; and risk stratification score. The HostDx Sepsis arm assumed the application of the test’s performance previously published in prospective clinical validation studies in the journals Science Translational Medicine¹ and Nature Communications^2,3. These included area under the receiver operating curve (AUROC) of 0.85 for the detection of a bacterial infection, 0.90 for the detection of a viral infection and 0.88 for predicting 30-day mortality (risk stratification).

“The ability to interrogate and understand how the immune system reacts to infection is more important than ever given the current COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it’s COVID-19, influenza, or bacterial infections, physicians need the ability to rapidly identify the presence, type, and severity of infection in a timely manner. Tests with robust performance characteristics that are generalizable are key to improving outcomes and reducing healthcare costs,” continued Sweeney.

Sepsis leads to 270,000 deaths⁴ in the US and $27B in Medicare costs⁵ annually. Inflammatix’s HostDx Sepsis test uses proprietary machine learning algorithms that incorporate the expression of multiple immune genes (host response) to identify the presence of bacterial or viral infections and to determine if a patient has or is likely to develop sepsis. Inflammatix’s simple-to-use, sample-to-answer HostDx system is designed to produce results at or near the point of care in 30 minutes or less. The company plans to advance its HostDx tests through commercial launch in Europe and submission to the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2021.

In January 2020, Inflammatix announced it had received $32 million in Series C financing. Prior to that, in November 2019, the company announced a cost-sharing contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, to further develop its HostDx tests. The agreement is worth up to $72 million based on achieving certain milestones.*

Citation

Schneider JE, Romanowsky J, Schuetz P, Stojanovic I, Cheng HK, Liesenfeld O, et al. Cost impact model of a novel multi-mRNA host response assay for diagnosis and risk assessment of acute respiratory tract infections and sepsis in the emergency department. JHEOR. 2020;7(1):24-34. doi:10.36469/jheor.2020.12637

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by “reading” the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infection and sepsis, where its HostDx™ tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in under 30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company funders include Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Think.Health Ventures, Grey Sky Venture Partners and the Stanford-StartX Fund. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).

#  #  #

Media Contact:

Jonathan Romanowsky

[email protected]

(650) 219-2141

Burlingame, Calif., April 16, 2020 — Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company delivering precision medicine at the point of care, today announced the appointment of João Fonseca, Ph.D., as Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Fonseca will oversee Inflammatix’s molecular assay development and engineering teams as the company advances its rapid tests for acute infections, sepsis, and COVID-19 risk stratification.

“João is an exceptional scientist and executive with a successful track record for building breakthrough diagnostics products, particularly at the point of care,” said Tim Sweeney, Ph.D., cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “He will play a critical role in bringing our novel tests to the clinic where they will help physicians take the guesswork out of determining which patients with infections need antibiotics, as well as which are likely to have or develop sepsis. He will also oversee our COVID-19 product development portfolio.”

Dr. Fonseca comes to Inflammatix with extensive credentials in science and medical technology. Since 2006, he has served as founder, CEO and chief scientific officer of biosurfit, a Lisbon, Portugal-based company whose blood tests utilize proprietary technology to diagnose multiple conditions at the point of care. The company’s tests are broadly available throughout Europe. Prior to biosurfit, Dr. Fonseca was a professor in physics and experimental physics at the Technical University of Lisbon and a researcher at the University of Lisbon. He also founded a non-profit organization that works with patients and researchers to advance novel cancer treatments and research. Dr. Fonseca has authored multiple publications in top peer-reviewed journals, is the author of 22 patents and has received numerous awards, including “Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Portuguese Young Entrepreneur Association.

“I’m excited to join Inflammatix in their mission of harnessing the immune system to tackle some of the world’s most pressing public health challenges, including antibiotic resistance and sepsis,” said Dr. Fonseca. “I look forward to helping the company deliver its rapid molecular tests into hospitals and clinics where they can benefit patients and to helping the company build a robust pipeline in additional clinical indications.”

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by “reading” the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infection and sepsis, where its HostDx™ tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in under 30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company funders include Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Think.Health Ventures, Grey Sky Venture Partners and the Stanford-StartX Fund. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).

#  #  #

Media Contact:

Jonathan Romanowsky

[email protected]

(650) 219-2141

Palo Alto, Calif., March 18, 2020  —  70+ StartX Med Innovators with Medical Breakthroughs for the Prevention, Diagnostics and Treatment of Coronavirus Mobilize Efforts to Fast-Track Public Health Needs During Pandemic.  StartX, a non-profit startup community of more than 1500 Stanford faculty and alumni founders, announces the launch of its StartX Med COVID-19 Task Force and the mobilization of its breakthrough medical companies providing solutions for the prevention, diagnostics and treatment of the novel coronavirus. The group of leading scientists, physicians and professor entrepreneurs will collaborate on outreach to government agencies, regulatory bodies and healthcare systems in the interest of public health.

Among the many leading-edge biotech, medical device and digital health companies solving critical needs during the COVID-19 pandemic are physicians working with positive cases, companies with FDA cleared solutions and those that are on the fast-track with the CDC. The following are a few ways the StartX Med COVID-19 Task Force is working to provide hope, flatten the curve, and combat the novel coronavirus:

• Rapid tests suitable for drive through testing, nursing homes, and ER rooms with results in 10 minutes
• Applications and hardware to assess respiratory issues
• Rapid solutions to fight developing sepsis and correlating antibiotic resistance resulting from COVID-19 severe complications
• COVID-19 related applications for remotely monitoring quarantined patients and healthcare workers who have been exposed
• Rapid RNA testing technologies
• Testing that provides information on the presence, type and severity of infections
• Solutions for optimizing hospital operations and supply chain tracking
• Solutions for automated quarantine management and remote virtual triage
• A centrifuge system which is readily deployable for remote sample collection and prep
• A handheld device measuring temperature, lung sounds, airway pressure, pulmonary function, ECG, and SPO2
• Remote monitoring for respiratory diseases, and other StartX Med technologies already deployed in Wuhan, China
• Free access to the Bioz research platform for biopharma companies
• Free virtual COVID-19 evaluation, screening and escalation tool for any hospital in the U.S. to help preserve clinical resources for patients who warrant in-person care
• StartX Med therapeutics companies with new antiviral drugs to treat COVID-19 and the most common lung disease caused by it, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), are accelerating their efforts to take their treatments into clinical settings.

“One of our first goals would be for existing StartX genetics companies to be able to ramp-up their current solutions for molecular testing of COVID-19 diagnostics and work with local and state officials and government agencies on deployment,” stated Dr. Michael Niaki, StartX Med COVID-19 Task Force Lead for the Diagnostics Subgroup.

Burlingame, Calif., March 4, 2020  —  Novel Machine Learning Host-Response-Based Approach Forms the Basis of Company’s Tests.  Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company delivering precision medicine at the point of care, announced findings from a new study published today in Nature Communications that demonstrate its ability to identify patients with bacterial versus viral infections using a data-driven approach that measures the immune system response. The molecular classifier used in the study forms the basis of Inflammatix’s HostDx rapid tests, which the company is developing to overcome traditional challenges of diagnosing acute infections and sepsis.

“When seeing a sick patient with a suspected infection in the emergency room, most physicians are forced to basically make an educated guess about whether the patient has a bacterial or viral infection, and then treat accordingly. Unfortunately, despite best efforts, this guessing game can have terrible outcomes for patients and for our health system” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix.

“For 20 years, researchers have been looking for a way to use transcriptomics – the study of the body’s gene expression – to classify patients with acute infections. To date, others’ attempts to apply machine learning to this problem have not held up when applied to diverse patient populations. Our new study is the first time that a locked, multi-gene signature has been validated in a blinded, independent clinical cohort. It represents a major technical breakthrough in translating our tests to the clinic.”

For the new publication, Inflammatix and Stanford scientists applied advanced machine learning to develop a 29-gene classifier (“BVN-1”) that can identify bacterial, viral or no infections across 1,069 blood samples from 18 prior studies of patients diagnosed with acute infections. The patients represented a wide range of geographic regions, clinical care setting and disease contexts.

The researchers then tested the locked classifier – i.e., without modification or retraining – on an independent cohort of 109 patients from Stanford University’s intensive care unit who underwent evaluation for acute infection and sepsis. They found that the test was highly accurate in diagnosing infections, especially among patients tested within 36 hours of hospital admission – a critical time for determining treatment. Among this subset, the test demonstrated an AUROC of 0.92 (95% CI; 0.83-0.99) for identifying patients with bacterial infections and 0.91 (95% CI; 0.82-0.98) for viral infections.

The molecular classifier also demonstrated higher accuracy than standard biomarkers – procalcitonin (PCT) and C-reactive protein (CRP) – that have been associated with acute infections and sepsis. Among the subset of patients with PCT and CRP results in the Stanford ICU cohort, the Inflammatix test had an AUROC of 0.87 (95% CI; 0.8-0.94) for bacterial infections, compared to 0.83 (95% CI; 0.75-0.92) for PCT and 0.70 (95% CI; 0.6-.081) for CRP. Neither PCT nor CRP could positively identify viral infections.

“To wit, 100% of the patients in this cohort were on antibiotics, but many did not have an underlying bacterial infection. Improved diagnostics would benefit patients and have a major impact on the healthcare system,” said Dr. Sweeney.

“Furthermore, our machine learning team has demonstrated the power of our computational platform in a highly heterogeneous and difficult field. We look forward to bringing the same computational tools to bear across multiple other infectious and inflammatory diseases.”

Antibiotic resistance and sepsis lead to more than 700,000[i] and 5 million[ii] respective deaths worldwide each year. Inflammatix’s HostDx Sepsis and HostDx Fever tests use proprietary machine learning algorithms that incorporate the expression of multiple immune genes (host response) to identify the presence of bacterial or viral infections and to determine if a patient has or is likely to develop sepsis. Inflammatix’s simple-to-use, sample-to-answer HostDx system is designed to produce results at or near the point of care in 30 minutes or less. The company plans to advance its HostDx tests through commercial launch in Europe and submission to the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2021.

In January 2020, Inflammatix announced it had received $32 million in Series C financing. Prior to that, in November 2019, the company announced a cost-sharing contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, to further develop its HostDx tests. The agreement is worth up to $72 million based on achieving certain milestones.*

Citation

Mayhew, MB et al. A generalizable 29-mRNA neural-network classifier for acute bacterial and viral infections. Nature Communications, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14975-w

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by “reading” the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infection and sepsis, where its HostDx™ tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in under 30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company funders include Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Think.Health Ventures, Grey Sky Venture Partners and the Stanford-StartX Fund. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).

*This project has been funded in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under Contract Nos. 75A50119C00034 and 75A50119C00044.

Media Contacts

For Inflammatix:
Tracy Morris
[email protected]
650-380-4413

[i] Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. No Time to Wait: Securing the Future from Drug-Resistant Infections; Report to the United Nations. April 2019.

[ii] Rudd KE, et al. Global, regional, and national sepsis incidence and mortality, 1990–2017: analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study. Lancet 2020; 395:200-211.

Burlingame, Calif., January 10, 2020  —  Financing will be used to advance HostDx™ tests for acute infections and sepsis to commercial launch in 2021.  Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company delivering precision medicine at the point of care, today announced a $32 million Series C financing. The funding round included participation from existing investors Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures and Think.Health Ventures, and new investors that include Grey Sky Venture Partners. The funds will be used to advance Inflammatix’s rapid HostDx™ tests through commercial launch in Europe and submission to the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2021.

“We are pleased to have the support of this strong group of healthcare investors who share our excitement about leveraging the immune response to build novel precision diagnostics for infectious and inflammatory disease. In particular, our first tests will help tackle antibiotic resistance and sepsis, two critical public health challenges, by reading the patient’s host-immune response to infection,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “With this financing in hand, we look forward to bringing our rapid HostDx tests into hospitals and clinics so that physicians can quickly get the right treatments to the right patients.”

The Series C funding follows an announcement in November 2019 that the company had signed a long-term cost-sharing contract to develop its tests for acute infections and sepsis with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) worth up $72 million based on achieving certain milestones.*

Antibiotic resistance and sepsis cause more than 700,000 and 5 million deaths worldwide each year, respectively. Traditional methods for diagnosing acute infections are too slow and are often inaccurate because they only look for pathogens in the bloodstream, despite most infections never entering the bloodstream. As a result, patients with suspected infection are often blindly treated with antibiotics – contributing to antibiotic resistance – or sepsis can be missed altogether.

Inflammatix’s HostDx Sepsis and HostDx Fever tests use proprietary machine learning algorithms that incorporate the expression of multiple immune genes (host response) to identify the presence of bacterial or viral infections and to determine if a patient has or is likely to develop sepsis. Inflammatix’s simple-to-use, sample-to-answer HostDx system is designed to produce results at or near the point of care in 30 minutes or less.

“Inflammatix’s team is advancing our knowledge of how to use the immune system and immune responses to improve the diagnosis of acute infections and sepsis,” said Mike Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of Northpond Ventures. “We believe their innovations in data science expertise and rapid multiplex test system have the power to transform care across a spectrum of medical conditions and diseases.”

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by “reading” the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infection and sepsis, where its HostDx™ tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in under 30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The Burlingame, Calif.-based company funders include Khosla Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Think.Health Ventures, Grey Sky Venture Partners and the Stanford-StartX Fund. For more information, please visit www.inflammatix.com and follow the company on Twitter (@Inflammatix_Inc).

*This project has been funded in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under Contract Nos. 75A50119C00034 and 75A50119C00044.

Media Contacts

For Inflammatix:
Tracy Morris
[email protected]
650-380-4413

Burlingame, Calif., November 14, 2019  —  HostDx Fever Test Reads the Immune System to Rapidly Diagnose Acute Infections at Point of Care.  Inflammatix, a pioneering molecular diagnostics company, announced today an agreement with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, to further develop its HostDx™ tests. Under the contract, Inflammatix will receive $6 million in the first phase of a cost-sharing contract worth up to $72 million based on achieving certain milestones.

The new contract will advance development and commercialization of Inflammatix’s simple sample-to-answer, point-of-care HostDx test system, which will produce results in under 30 minutes. The first phase of work will focus on the novel HostDx Fever test. The HostDx Fever test “reads” gene expression patterns in the immune system to quickly identify whether a suspected infection is bacterial or viral, enabling physicians to quickly and accurately determine whether to prescribe antibiotics. The HostDx Fever test will be run from a fingerstick blood sample and will be used primarily in primary care, urgent care and other outpatient clinical settings. Today, an estimated 30 percent of antibiotics are inappropriately prescribed to patients with infections because their infections are not obviously bacterial or viral in origin.

“We are thrilled to receive this funding from BARDA, which will enable us to advance our HostDx Fever test into the clinic where it will help physicians quickly diagnose infections so they can get the right treatments to the right patients. This ability is key to combatting antibiotic resistance, which is one of the most pressing public health challenges of our time,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “Through this public-private sector partnership, we will move precision medicine to the point of care, where it can have an immediate impact on patient outcomes.”

Current methods for diagnosing infections are too slow and often inaccurate, resulting in delayed or inappropriate treatment. Infections are often blindly – and incorrectly – treated with antibiotics, which contributes to antibiotic resistance. Each year at least 2 million Americans become infected with bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and at least 23,000 die as a direct result.

The contract may optionally support two additional Inflammatix tests: HostDx Sepsis and HostDx FeverFlu. HostDx Sepsis is a blood-based test that will rapidly diagnose infections in patients in emergency department or other hospital settings and determine which patients are likely to have or develop sepsis. HostDx FeverFlu will be performed on nasal swab samples and will combine traditional influenza testing with host-response biomarkers.

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by “reading” the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infections and sepsis, where its HostDx™ tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in 20-30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The 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).

This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the Department of Health and Human Services; Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response; Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, under Contract No. 75A50119C00034.

Media Contacts

For Inflammatix:
Tracy Morris
[email protected]
650-380-4413

Burlingame, Calif., August 6, 2019  — Inflammatix, a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics, announced today that it has received 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. The award was based on the company’s presentation  during the 71st AACC Annual Scientific Meeting, which is being held August 4-8 in Anaheim, Calif.

“We are extremely honored to receive this prestigious award, which recognizes the power of our proven technology to transform diagnosis of acute infections and sepsis,” said Tim Sweeney, M.D., Ph.D., cofounder and chief executive officer of Inflammatix. “We believe our rapid HostDx tests will enable physicians to more quickly get the right treatments to the right patients, improving patient outcomes and ultimately reducing the global health burdens of antibiotic resistance and sepsis.”

Inflammatix’s first test, HostDx Sepsis, will use proprietary algorithms to read the immune system’s response to infection. The test 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, while traditional diagnostic approaches look for blood-based pathogens, most infections – and nearly half of sepsis cases – are negative for bloodstream pathogens. Inflammatix’s technology is proven in dozens of studies involving over 2,400 patients and published in leading peer-reviewed journals. The company is developing a proprietary cartridge-based system that will produce rapid results at or near the point of care in 30 minutes or less and plans to seek FDA clearance for the HostDx Sepsis test.

Each year in the United States alone, 20 million patients are assessed for acute infections and sepsis in emergency department and other hospital settings. 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. Inflammatix was one of three finalists selected to present to a panel of expert judges during a special session of the AACC meeting. The company was selected based on its technology’s clinical validity, patient impact, market opportunity, business model, competitive analysis, intellectual property strength, regulatory plan, team strength and stage of development.

Inflammatix also received the Audience Choice award based on the audience’s votes for their favorite technology.

About Inflammatix

Inflammatix is a molecular diagnostics company that is reimagining diagnostics by “reading” the patient’s immune system to deliver rapid results that improve patient care and reduce major public health burdens. The company’s initial focus is on acute infections and sepsis, where its HostDx™ tests combine proprietary biomarkers and advanced machine learning to help physicians quickly get the right treatments to the right patients. Each test will be developed to run on the company’s sample-to-answer isothermal instrument platform in 20-30 minutes, enabling the power of precision medicine at the point of care. The 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

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