Colorimetric sensor array allows fast detection and simultaneous identification of sepsis-causing bacteria in spiked blood culture
Open accessAbstract
Sepsis is a medical emergency demanding early diagnosis and tailored antimicrobial therapy. Every hour of delay in initiating effective therapy measurably increases patient mortality. Blood culture is currently the reference standard for detecting bloodstream infection, a multistep process which may take one to several days. Here, we report a novel paradigm for earlier detection and the simultaneous identification of pathogens in spiked blood cultures by means of a metabolomic "fingerprint" of the volatile mixture outgassed by the organisms. The colorimetric sensor array provided significantly faster detection of positive blood cultures than a conventional blood culture system (12.1 h versus 14.9 h, P < 0.001) while allowing for the identification of 18 bacterial species with 91.9% overall accuracy within 2 h of growth detection. The colorimetric sensor array also allowed for discrimination between unrelated strains of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, indicating that the metabolomic fingerprint has the potential to track nosocomial transmissions. Altogether, the colorimetric sensor array is a promising tool that offers a new paradigm for diagnosing bloodstream infections.
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Automated fluorescence-based microbial detection systems such as BacT/Alert detect metabolic activity or CO2 production of microorganisms in culture bottles, providing results within 3-5 days rather than 14 days.
“For example, automated fluorescence-based microbial detection systems, such as BacT/Alert, detect metabolic activity or CO2 production of microorganisms in culture bottles, providing results within 3–5 days rather than 14 days (Lim et al., 2014; Bugno et al., 2015).”
From Isolator-based point-of-care manufacturing: a practical solution for GMP-compliant cell and extracellular vesicles therapy production (2025) · cites this paper as Lim et al., 2014
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The Balanced Accuracy and Its Posterior Distribution
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“Every hour of delay in the diagnosis of sepsis increases patient mortality (2).”
BackgroundSnitkin, E. S., Zelazny, A. M., Thomas, P. J., Stock, F., Program, N. C. S., Henderson, D. K., Palmore, T. N., & Segre, J. A. (2012) · Science Translational Medicine · doi:10.1126/scitranslmed.3004129 · Cited by 863 · see citing works
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Syndromic Panel-Based Testing in Clinical Microbiology
Ramanan, P., Bryson, A. L., Binnicker, M. J., Pritt, B. S., & Patel, R. (2018) · Clinical Microbiology Reviews · doi:10.1128/cmr.00024-17 · Cited by 308 · see citing works
Chiu, Y.-S., Wang, K.-L., & Wu, K.-L. (2025) · Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology · doi:10.3389/fbioe.2025.1644318 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
- Authors
- Lim, S. H., Mix, S., Xu, Z., Taba, B., Budvytiene, I., Berliner, A. N., Queralto, N., Churi, Y. S., Huang, R. S., Eiden, M., Martino, R. A., Rhodes, P., & Banaei, N.
- Affiliations
- Specific Technologies (United States) (US)
- Stanford Medicine (US)
- Specific Technologies, Mountain View, California, USA
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Microbiology
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology
- Published
- 2014-02
- Volume
- 52
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 592-598
- ISSN
- 0095-1137 (ISSN-L)
- 1098-660X
- PMC
- PMC3911346
- OpenAlex
- W2095936285
- Cited by
- 66
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 3.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Clinical Microbiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (2r44ai094781-04)
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R44 AI094781, 2R44AI094781)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Clinical Biochemistry › Bacterial Identification and Susceptibility Testing
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Advanced Chemical Sensor Technologies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Sepsis Diagnosis and Treatment
- Keywords
- colorimetric sensor array, sepsis, blood culture, bloodstream infection, bacterial identification, volatile metabolites, metabolomic fingerprint, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, nosocomial transmission, rapid pathogen detection
- MeSH terms
- Bacteria, Bacteriological Techniques, Blood, Blood Chemical Analysis, Colorimetry, Humans, Time, Biosensing Techniques, Sepsis, Metabolomics
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