About SeLux Diagnostics

SeLux Diagnostics is developing a Next Generation Phenotyping (NGP) platform that promises to transform infectious disease patient treatment by dramatically increasing the speed and accuracy with which targeted, personalized antibiotic therapies can be prescribed. Earlier, better-informed treatment decisions will save lives, improve patient outcomes, decrease hospital lengths of stay and hospital acquired infections, and help combat the global antibiotic resistance epidemic.

The CDC has cited bacterial resistance to antibiotics among the world’s deadliest and costliest health threats. Using current technologies, doctors must overprescribe powerful, broad-spectrum antibiotics for days while waiting for key diagnostic results to direct personalized therapy. SeLux’s Next Generation Phenotyping (NGP) system provides virtually instantaneous AST results, fast-tracking targeted patient therapies so patients can receive the treatments they need on day one.

SeLux Diagnostics was founded in 2014 by two Yale- and Harvard-trained engineers working in an improvised attic laboratory. By 2018, SeLux’s phenotypic test had garnered the recognition and support of the National Institute of Health and Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for the technology’s promising impact, advancing through the Series B round of funding that will allow them to complete product development and perform the clinical trials required to gain FDA clearance.

On September 25, 2018, the company announced that it had signed a milestone-based contract worth up to $45 million with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).

SeLux immediately receives $9.3 million from BARDA to fund the clinical trial necessary for SeLux NGP, SeLux’s next-generation phenotyping platform. The additional $36 million will fund the development of SeLux’s second-generation rapid sepsis diagnostic system.

SeLux has also raised $25 million in Series B financing to support the pivotal FDA trial for SeLux’s next-generation phenotyping (NGP) platform. The round was led by Sands Capital Ventures and included returning investors RA Capital and Schooner Capital and new investors Sands Capital and Northpond Ventures. This funding positions SeLux to complete development and perform the clinical trial necessary to gain FDA clearance.

SeLux Diagnostics is based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Next Generation Phenotyping

Our Technology

Technology

SeLux’s Next Generation Phenotyping (NGP) platform provides rapid, high-throughput, fully-automated AST results, enabling same-shift susceptibility testing of up to 50 antibiotics in parallel. The platform is driven by SeLux’s proprietary assay, which differentiates antibiotic-induced bacterial growth modes with a surface-binding fluorescent amplifier. By elucidating bacterial morphologies, SeLux NGP makes antibiotic susceptibility determinations two to four times faster than current state-of-the-art, high-throughput AST technologies, which require 24+ hours from patient sample to AST results. And while some emerging technologies claim to deliver results at speeds comparable to SeLux, those entrants require complicated systems with quite narrow testing menus.

 

The SeLux technology delivers same-shift AST results for the vast majority of non-fastidious pathogens. What’s more, SeLux leverages standard equipment to make adoption easy across labs. The combination of unparalleled early detection, vast antibiotic test menus, and cost-effective implementation positions SeLux NGP as the platform of choice for integrated delivery networks, academic medical centers, and other healthcare providers that want to transform the treatment of patients with infectious disease. SeLux NGP breaks the speed versus complexity tradeoff inherent in current AST models, dramatically improves outcomes for patients, reduces patient length of stay and pharmacy costs for health systems and contributes towards greater Antibiotic Stewardship worldwide.

 


Next-Day Personalized Antibiotic Therapy for Most Patients

Features & Benefits

Faster Personalized Therapies

SeLux’s Next-Generation Phenotyping (NGP) platform will enable physicians to transition patients to personalized antibiotic therapies much more quickly – from one to four days earlier – than current state-of-the-art platforms, providing next-day personalized therapies for nearly all patients.

Unparalleled Early Detection

SeLux NGP detects antibiotic effects on bacteria more rapidly and at lower concentrations than currently possible. This enables bacterial susceptibilities to different antibiotics to be determined virtually simultaneously to the identification of the infecting bacteria.

Same-Day Results

SeLux’s second-generation platform will deliver same-day personalized therapy results for patients with bacteremia, septicemia, and urinary tract infections. The platform obviates the need for traditional blood and agar cultures by utilizing SeLux NGP’s speed and accuracy.

Works for Broad Menu of Pathogens

SeLux’s technology works across a vast menu of bacteria and fungi, delivering an unmatched breadth of AST results to labs. The initial product will focus on the major non-fastidious bacterial pathogens and later upgrades will add fastidious bacteria and fungi.

No Antibiotic Limitations

SeLux NGP provides a menu of 50+ antibiotics per sample — 5X more antibiotics than current AST technology — and, due to its ready expansion room, will seamlessly incorporate newly-approved drugs.

Works for All Samples

Since effective antibiotic stewardship requires all patients to be rapidly transitioned to targeted therapies, SeLux’s first product is designed to provide rapid results from isolates deriving from all sample types.

Standard Workflow

SeLux NGP leverages standard microbiology processes so it can easily integrate into clinical microbiology laboratories to rapidly improve antibiotic susceptibility testing efficiencies and speed.

High Throughput

One SeLux system will deliver over 100 AST tests per day, matching standard laboratory susceptibility exceeding the workflow needs of labs. 

Sensible ROI

Designed for frictionless integration in existing labs, SeLux’s breakthrough technology promises superior return on investment to health systems by reducing pharmacy costs, patient length of stay, Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC), and HAC reduction penalties.

Our Team

Steve Lufkin
CEO
Eric Stern, PhD
CTO & Co-founder
Aleksandar Vacic, PhD
President & Co-founder
Benjamin Spears, PhD
Lead Scientist
Nathan Purmort, MSEE
Principal Engineer
Felicia Giok, MSc
Scientist
Kelly Flentie, PhD
Lead Scientist
Sarah Scott, BSChE
Senior Engineer
Kayla DaPonte, MLS(ASCP)CM
Scientist
Derek Puff, PhD
Principal Software Engineer
Frederick Floyd Jr.
Lead Engineer
Vamsee Pasangulapati BSCS
Senior Software Engineer
Beth Bauman, MSME
Director of Operations
Andrew Reynolds, BSBME
Senior Systems Engineer
Kenny Varner, MSBME MSETIM
V & V Engineer

Board of Directors

Scott Yaphe

Parker Cassidy

Steve Lufkin

Eric Stern

Mike Rubin

Investors & Partners

Granting Agencies


News

Press Releases:

SeLux Diagnostics Announces Milestone-Based Contract for U.S. HHS/BARDA Research Funding

News Coverage:

BARDA Contract for up to $45M Awarded to AST Firm SeLux Dx

Get in touch

CAREERS at SELUX DIAGNOSTICS

SeLux’s interdisciplinary team has expertise in microbiology, biochemistry, chemistry, engineering, software, and algorithm design and is buttressed by distinguished experts in Clinical Microbiology, Infectious Disease, and Machine Learning. We are always looking for innovative scientific, engineering, marketing, and business development talent.



SeLux Diagnostics, Inc.

56 Roland Street, Suite 206
Charlestown, MA 02129 United States
+1-617-945-9383
info@seluxdx.com