Liverpool University pioneers life-saving test

TECHNOLOGY developed at the University of Liverpool is being commercialised by two Yorkshire firms.

The consortium is working to develop a disposable test based on research by Dr Enitan Carrol, at the university, that has identified biomarkers that can point to the early stages of life threatening illness sepsis.

Leeds biotech start-up MicroLab Devices is heading the venture which also includes York-based Forsite Diagnostics.

MicroLab’s managing director Tom Myers said: “Surviving sepsis is all about its early detection. The early symptoms of sepsis are fever like, therefore easy to misdiagnose.

“If the condition is diagnosed and treated in the first hour following presentation, the patient has more than an 80% survival rate. After the sixth hour, the patient only has a 30% chance of survival.

“Currently, hospital tests can take several hours from taking a blood sample to starting treatment. For me the most alarming fact about sepsis is that it is our own body’s over-response to infection that can kill you.”

The test could give medical staff results within five minutes.