BOXBOROUGH, Mass., June 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HelixBind, which is developing an innovative diagnostic platform to revolutionize care for invasive infections such as sepsis, announced today it has been awarded a new $3MM grant from the NIH. In addition, HelixBind announced that Dr. Melvin Weinstein, a leading authority in the field of blood cultures, is joining the company’s Clinical Advisory Board.
HelixBind was awarded the grant from the NIH to expand the capabilities of RaPID, its direct-from-blood platform for the identification and characterization of bloodstream infections. Clinical studies of RaPID/BSI, the first test for HelixBind’s platform, identifies the most common bloodstream infections associated with sepsis and is supported by a $4MM contract from CARB-X announced in December.
Sepsis, caused by a severe immune response to a bloodstream infection, is a major global health crisis. Every year in the US, there are 1.7M cases, and more than 270,000 of those patients will not survive. Globally the situation is more dire, with 30M annual cases leading to well over 6M deaths. Prognosis for septic patients deteriorates hourly, so fast and accurate identification and characterization of the infection is crucial, assisting physicians to initiate the appropriate antimicrobial treatment as soon as possible. Although appropriate antimicrobials are available for the large majority of these infections, patients afflicted with sepsis often do not receive the right treatment quickly enough, leading to poor outcomes. HelixBind’s platform can provide unequivocal identification of infections direct from blood within hours (versus days with current methods).
“HelixBind is working to provide clinicians with the tools they need to quickly and accurately identify deadly bloodstream infections; accelerating patient recovery and improving outcomes,” said Alon Singer, CEO of HelixBind. “The new grant from the NIH will help us advance our platform and Dr. Weinstein’s expertise will provide HelixBind with important guidance for our product development.”
Dr. Weinstein is the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy and Immunology at Rutgers Health and Professor of Medicine and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He is considered to be a leading authority in the field of blood cultures and served on a number of editorial boards including the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, the American Journal of Infection Control, Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease, and Clinical Microbiology Reviews.
About HelixBind
HelixBind is developing an innovative diagnostic platform to revolutionize care for invasive infections such as sepsis. Its novel platform provides faster, more accurate, and more informative microbiology results, assisting clinicians in precisely identifying bloodstream infections and developing personalized antimicrobial interventions for infected patients. This approach can improve outcomes, save lives, and reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance. Learn more at www.helixbind.com.
Media contact:
Michelle Faulkner
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michelle@big-swing.com