With support from the Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense Center of Excellence, Biomeme and Predigen were proud to recently participate in discussion and demonstration of our work with Host Response as a part of this year’s virtual COE Showcase.
Hosted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Centers of Excellence (COE), the COE Summit event is a unique opportunity for attendees to connect and network with COE researchers, DHS components, federal, state, and local stakeholders, as well as industry partners to present current and emerging solutions to threats and challenges faced by DHS.
In a joint effort to reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics, Biomeme, leaders in portable real-time PCR testing solutions, and Predigen, an emerging leader in precision medicine, have launched an innovative blood-based Host Response Test (HR-B/V) to help providers differentiate bacterial from viral infection and detect Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI) early.
Host response refers to a human’s immune system response to an infection. Anything we are exposed to will cause a response at the molecular level and those responses can be measured in gene expression. Healthcare providers can analyze how a human body would react to certain diseases to determine if the infection is bacterial, viral, or both, then properly treat said infection.
Currently, the inability to properly diagnose infections often leads to over-prescribing antibiotics when they are not always a suitable solution. Over-prescribing of antibiotics drives antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and adverse events. In fact, the World Health Organization has declared that AMR is one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity
The Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense Center of Excellence will researches and develops solutions, protocols, educational tools, and capabilities to support DHS operations that detect, assess, and respond to known and unknown biological threats and hazards that could adversely impact the Nation’s people, agriculture, and economy.