Introduction to the project

INTOPSENS - a highly INTegrated OPtical SENSor for point-of-care label-free identification of pathogenic bacteria strains and their antibiotic resistance.

Sepsis is a bacterial infection in the blood. It is a life-threatening condition, characterized by multi-organ failure. In the EU alone, sepsis claims ~146,000 lives/year and is responsible for EUR 7.6 billion/year health care costs.

InTopSens is a multidisciplinary project involving the emerging fields of photonics structures, electronics, fluidics and bio-chemistry, to contribute to the development of high value sensor technology for a fast and low-cost diagnosis of sepsis.

This objective will be addressed through the demonstration of a compact polymer and silicon-based CMOS-compatible photonics sensor system. It integrates two label-free biomolecular recognition photonic sensor technologies with sensitivities as low as 0.1ng per ml, state-of-the-art in label-free integrated optical biosensors, with novel coupling technology that will permit very high integration of hundreds of sensing areas on a 1mm² photonics chip.

Figure 1: Schematic of a biosensor based on a photonic ring resonator in SOI.

Figure 2: Pictures of an Intopsens cartridge prototype (top) and the cartridge reader (bottom).

The novel diagnostic technology of the InTopSens device has the potential to be fast and easy to use, making routine screening or monitoring of bacteria more cost-effective. The ultimate target of InTopSens is to demonstrate the feasibility of a rapid diagnostic test for sepsis at “point of care” in the intensive care unit environment.

Figure 2: Typical time frame of today’s sepsis diagnostics Gold Standard that is based on microbiological methods. Intopsens aims at a full identification of the bacterial strains and their antibiotic susceptibility within on hour.

Budget and timeline

Intopsens is an EC sponsored Specific Targeted Research Project (No. 223932) under FP7. The overall project budget is 3.362.000 € and the EC Funding 2.600.000 €. The project will run 2008-2011.

Contact information

For more information, please contact the Intopsens project coordinator:
Aman Russom,
KTH – the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
e-mail: aman[at]kth.se