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DoD awards MeMed $9.2 million for platform that distinguishes between bacterial, viral infections
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MeMed Ltd. announced that it has received a government contract worth up to $9.2 million to finish work on a point-of-care platform to distinguish between bacterial and viral infections.
According to a news release, the contract was awarded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a branch of the U.S. Department of Defense focused on addressing the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
"We are excited by this vote of confidence,” Eran Eden, PhD, chief executive of MeMed, said the release. “DTRA's recognition of our work further positions MeMed as a world leader in immune-based diagnostics of infectious diseases. This joint effort, and our growing collaboration with other international stakeholders from industry and government, will facilitate the global availability of our tests aimed at combating antimicrobial resistance."
According to the release, Eden and fellow MeMed cofounder Kfir Oved, MD, PhD, who is the company’s chief technology officer, have spent the past 8 years working with experts to study how the human immune system changes when it is fighting an infection. The goal has been to develop a human immune signature that accurately recognizes the difference between bacterial and viral infections, which could cut down on the misuse of antibiotics.
already in use. Oved said the DTRA contract will allow MeMed to expedite completion of the second generation of the test, which involves a point-of-care platform the company says is easy to use and takes just 15 minutes.
“In addition to allowing measurements of our bacterial vs. viral test within minutes, the new platform also opens the way to a variety of rapid multiplex-protein measurements at the point of care with lab-quality precision, which has broad applications,” Oved said in the release.
Disclosure: Eden and Oved are employed by MeMed.