• World's first implementation of personalized antibiotic prescription within a day, reducing the previous three-day wait.
• Published in the prestigious international journal 'Nature' on the 25th.

▲ (From left) Professor Kwon Sunghoon of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University, Professor Park Wan-beom of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Seoul National University Hospital, Professor Kim Inho of the Department of Hematology and Oncology at Seoul National University Hospital, Dr. Kim Tae-hyun, Researcher Kang Junwon, and Researcher Jang Haewook from Seoul National University.

A collaborative research team led by Professor Kwon Sunghoon of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University (SNU), along with Professors Park Wan-beom and Kim Inho of Seoul National University Hospital and QuantaMatrix Inc., has opened a new path to significantly improve the survival rate of sepsis patients, who have a mortality rate exceeding 40%.

The research findings were published on July 25th in 'Nature', the world's most prestigious scientific journal with an impact factor of 50.5. The publication in 'Nature' highlights the serious societal problem posed by sepsis and antibiotic resistance and signifies that this research offers a transformative solution to these issues. Moreover, 'Nature' selected this study for its ‘Podcasts in 2024’ series, featuring an interview with Professor Kwon Sunghoon on the 'Nature Podcast' to emphasize the research's significance.

Sepsis is a life-threatening emergency condition caused by the excessive inflammatory response to the proliferation of pathogens like bacteria or fungi in the blood, leading to organ damage and sudden death. With a 30-day mortality rate exceeding 30%, it is more than twice as lethal as heart attacks. Rapid administration of the optimal antibiotic is crucial to reducing the mortality rate.

Currently, it takes more than 2-3 days to obtain results from 'Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing', which identify effective antibiotics for the patient. Consequently, hospitals resort to broad-spectrum antibiotics to empirically treat patients, despite the rising resistance rate of about 30% to these antibiotics, which is increasing annually with the emergence of resistant strains. If the pathogen infecting the patient is resistant to the administered antibiotic, the patient's prognosis deteriorates sharply, potentially leading to death.

Additionally, delays in testing lead to the misuse of antibiotics, directly contributing to the rapid development of 'superbugs' resistant to multiple antibiotics. As the resistance rate increases, empirical treatments become increasingly challenging, and the World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that by 2050, 10 million people worldwide will die annually from infections caused by superbugs.

[Figure 1] Ultra-Rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (uRAST) revolutionizing traditional antibiotic susceptibility testing. ID: Identification, AST: Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing

To provide optimal treatment for sepsis patients, three independent tests are currently necessary: 'Blood culture' to confirm infection, 'Pathogen identification' to identify the infecting pathogen, and 'Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing’ to find the optimal antibiotic. Comprehensive results from all these tests are required to prescribe the optimal antibiotic. While some technologies have been developed to reduce the time required for antimicrobial susceptibility testing, no success has been achieved worldwide in shortening the blood culture process, which takes the most time.

The ultra-Rapid Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (uRAST) developed by Professor Kwon's team is the world's first integrated technology that eliminates the technical challenge of blood culture and completes all necessary tests for optimal antibiotic prescription within a day. uRAST uses nanoparticles synthesized with immune proteins that specifically bind to pathogens, isolating pure pathogens from the patient's blood. The team also developed and integrated new technologies to rapidly perform pathogen identification and antimicrobial susceptibility tests, achieving an 'ultra-fast' testing process. In clinical trials with 190 suspected sepsis patients, uRAST completed all tests within 13 hours, reducing the time by 40-60 hours compared to conventional diagnostic equipment. Additionally, uRAST demonstrated high accuracy meeting FDA standards.

Another significant aspect of this research is the implementation of fully automated technology by integrating all necessary tests for sepsis diagnosis. The conventional method involves separate, manual processes for each test, resulting in delays, especially since most hospitals cannot operate around the clock ('24/7'). For example, if blood culture is completed after hours, subsequent tests are delayed until the next day, missing the critical golden time for many sepsis patients. This study demonstrated the feasibility of true 24/7 operation by automating all necessary tests for sepsis diagnosis in real patient cases.

In an interview with Nature Podcast, Professor Kwon shared an anecdote: “Students often visited the hospital lab at night for clinical trials but found it closed, realizing firsthand the critical need for 24/7 operations to treat patients promptly. This drove our research relentlessly for six years.”

Co-first authors Dr. Kim Tae-hyun, Kang Junwon, and Jang Haewook stated, “Every time a patient died during clinical trials, we felt the importance and responsibility of this research. We hope this testing technology is quickly adopted in hospitals to help sepsis patients.”

[Photo 1] Professor Kwon Sunghoon's Research Team who Developed uRAST

This research was made possible through interdisciplinary collaboration between engineering and medicine. Professor Kwon's team continuously explores engineering technologies needed by medical practitioners, challenging translational medical research. The sepsis diagnosis study began with an interview of doctors by a researcher and has since inspired a specialist to join Professor Kwon’s lab to advance engineering technology.

Corresponding authors Professors Kwon Sunghoon and Park Wan-beom emphasized, “Close collaboration between universities and hospitals is crucial for medical advancements. The uRAST technology is a fruit of over a decade of collaborative research, and we will continue striving to apply our translational research in actual hospital settings.”