The world’s largest genomics study in patients with life-threatening COVID-19 infections has uncovered 16 new genetic variants associated with severe disease and drawn up a roadmap for research into new therapies and diagnostics. The research involved comparing the complete genome sequences of 7,491 patients admitted to 224 intensive care units in the U.K. against those of 48,400 participants in Genomics England’s 100,000 Genomes project, and of a further 1,630 people who had mild COVID-19. While some of the gene variants found in the Genomicc study affect the function of a protein, others influence the amount of the protein that is expressed. An example is mucin-1, where overexpression led to worse outcomes.

Selux Diagnostics Inc. raised $50 million in a series C financing to support the commercial launch of its next-generation phenotyping (NGP) rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing platform. RA Capital Management LLC led the round with participation from Sands Capital, Schooner Capital and Northpond Ventures, all returning investors.

LONDON – Oxford University spinout Oxdx Ltd. has raised £2.6 million (US$3.6 million) in pre-seed funding to advance development of a technology for directly identifying infectious pathogens without the need to purify, culture or amplify samples first. The instant testing method uses a mixture of a single universal reagent, high resolution microscopy and machine learning, to identify specific species and strains of bacteria, viruses and other pathogens within minutes.

PARIS – Spartha Medical SAS reported an award of $2.7 million in grants with further, undisclosed equity financing from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, a body run by the European Commission established to make direct equity investment in European Union companies. This fund will be used to initiate clinical evaluation of its multifunctional coating technique.

Molecular diagnostics could dramatically improve care for one of the most common infections women face, vaginitis. A study by Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD) found that clinicians miss more than 45% of positive cases and misidentify an additional 12% of negative cases as positives when compared to diagnostic findings.

A team led by researchers from the ETH Zürich and the University of Basel has used a combination of mass spectrometry data and machine learning to predict antibiotic resistance of clinical bacterial samples. The results, which were published in the Jan. 10, 2022, issue of Nature Medicine, could speed the identification of optimal antibiotic regimens for patients.

Researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, the University of Queensland, Griffith University, the University of Adelaide and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have unlocked a key to making existing front-line antibiotics work again against Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacteria that cause pneumonia.

An international study led by scientists at the University of Exeter in the U.K. suggests how to combine antibiotic and bacteriophage therapy optimally, in order to reduce antibiotic use and potentially prevent multidrug resistance in bacteria.

Xandar Kardian Inc. closed a $10 million series A funding round to support the rollout of the company’s contactless health monitoring solution. Phoenix Venture Partners led the round with participation from Portfolia Active Aging & Longevity Fund, Taronga Ventures and others. “With the new financing round, Xandar Kardian looks forward to expanding its core team in Toronto and in the United States, in addition to placing increased emphasis on R&D and mass production for its technologies,” Xandar Kardian co-founder and CEO Sam Yang told BioWorld.

Memed Diagnostics Ltd. has published new data from an EU Commission funded clinical trial evaluating its blood test for differentiating bacterial and viral infections. The prospective, multicenter cohort study, titled “AutoPilot-Dx,” was carried out in emergency wards in Italy and Germany. The goals of the study were to validate the performance of Memed’s BV test in a broad pediatric population with respiratory tract infections or fever without source and estimate its potential to impact antibiotic use.