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Engineering faculty member receives NIH grant to develop biotechnology to better detect sepsis
New nanodevice could detect drug-resistant bacteria faster and more accurately, increasing chances of treatment and recovery
Jacob Waitus, left, a BS/MS chemical engineering and materials science student, and microsystems engineering doctoral candidate Li Liu in Du's Nano-biosensing, Nano-manufacturing and Nano-materials Lab. Photo by A. Sue Weisler/RIT Marketing & Communications
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s one of the leading causes of death in hospitals, sepsis becomes more complicated with the rise in bacteria most resistant to some of today’s antibiotics. If physicians can detect onset earlier, treatments could begin sooner to improve patient mortality.
Ke Du, a mechanical engineering faculty-researcher at Rochester Institute of Technology, will be developing a microfluidic device to improve detection of drug resistant bacteria in blood, one of the most common pathogens causing sepsis. Du recently received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to develop a detection system and to further clinical studies of how the bacteria can be targeted for intervention. The five-year, $1.8 million award is part of the NIH’s Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award for Early State Investigators 14 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER NOVEMBER 2021
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