Partnership plans molecular biological characterisation of up to 8000 clinically relevant isolates of pathogens resistant to multiple antibiotics using the latest sequencing technology.

Noscendo GmbH and the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) have announced the successful signing of a cooperative agreement with the Institute for Hygiene and Public Health (IHPH) at the UKB, working towards expansion of the proprietary and CE-certified diagnostic platform DISQVER® in the field of microbial resistances. Through the partnership, Noscendo GmbH will fully molecularly characterise up to 8000 antibiotic-resistant pathogens from over 35 species using the latest sequencing technology. The institute’s strain bank, which has been running for 20 years and is continually growing, and the environmental databank are fed from various national and international projects and their structure addresses significant resistance problems of today’s inpatient treatments.

“The ability to identify the infectious agent primarily responsible for an infection directly from patient material gives doctors an advantage when it comes to treatment. This applies above all to bacteria which are resistant to multiple antibiotics, the amount of which has risen sharply in recent years, not only in healthcare facilities but also in the environment,” says Dr. Dr. Ricarda Schmithausen, head of the One Health Working Group at the UKB. The researcher and her team are investigating the consequences of the spread of antibiotic-resistant germs through, among other things, wastewater or liquid manure. “If we can identify the pathogen and its resistances quickly, we can initiate targeted hygiene measures and antibiotic treatments.”

Following the successful development and CE certification of the DISQVER® platform, a pilot study in eight maximum-care hospitals in Germany confirmed the value of the Noscendo platform with regards to identification of the primary pathogen beyond several pathogen classes. The University Hospital Bonn is one of these hospitals and is doing the groundwork for Noscendo GmbH regarding the expansion to include direct differentiation of pathogens’ antibiotic resistances.

“We are very pleased about this partnership. The IHPH’s expertise is a significant help for us to continue further development with regards to the detection of resistances within our DISQVER® platform, in order to define a new gold standard for the identification of pathogens,” says Dr. Philip Stevens, director of Noscendo GmbH. “After our recent successful CE certification, this is the second significant milestone we have reached since October 2018.”

The cooperation between the Institute for Hygiene and Public Health at the UKB and companies with bioinformatics skills such as Noscendo GmbH can help to master the development and spread of resistance in a cooperative and synergetic manner,” adds Dr. Dr. Schmithausen. "Therefore, we are happy to be involved in the further development of an innovative software for future microbiological-hygienic infection diagnostics".

Since the beginning of the partnership with Noscendo, several clinically relevant resistant microorganisms have been analysed down to the smallest detail and characterised using the DISQVER® diagnostic platform. As a consequence, it was already possible to attribute various outbreak events and incidents to specific bacterial culprits. It was also possible to meticulously retrace previously unexplained cases, where the hitherto unidentified bacterial strains involved had been stored in the IHPH’s strain bank.

About Noscendo GmbH

Noscendo GmbH develops bioinformatic solutions to identify and assess pathogens in bloodstream associated and related infections. The proprietary diagnostic platform DISQVER® has been validated together with leading German clinicians and will be provided in the area of bloodstream infections. For this, Noscendo works together with leading hospitals, development partners, logistics providers, innovation-driven health service providers and health insurance funds.

About University Hospital Bonn
The University Hospital Bonn (UKB) has about 37 clinics and 31 institutes and with over 8,000 employees is the third largest employer in Bonn after Telekom and Post DHL. Every year, the UKB treats around 50,000 inpatients and around 35,000 emergencies, and provides more than 350,000 outpatient treatments. The medical faculty of the University of Bonn is ranked first in NRW in terms of scientific performance (evaluation of the state). The UKB has the second highest case mix index (severity of cases treated) among the 35 university hospitals in Germany.

About One Health working group at the IHPH of Bonn University Hospital
One Health working group at the UKB is a team of young scientists from various disciplines, founded by Dr. Dr. Ricarda Schmithausen, which is specialised in correlating and evaluating risks according to the One Health approach of the emergence and transmission of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, antibiotic resistances and antibiotic-resistant genes within and between (clinical) healthcare facilities, as well as in the environment and animal-based components.

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