Penn State lab method targets seven-hour sepsis diagnosis

A vial of whole blood can hide the answer to a life-threatening infection: too few bacteria to identify, too much biological clutter to analyze quickly. At Penn State, a team led by biomedical engineer Pak Kin Wong has developed STREAM, a method that the researchers say could cut bloodstream-infection diagnosis from the usual two to seven days to about seven hours.

The problem is not simply spotting bacteria. Doctors need to know which pathogen is present and which antibiotic is likely to work. Traditional testing enriches a blood sample over several days, then adds another day or two for identification. That delay matters because sepsis, the body’s dangerous response to infection, can kill in as little as 12 hours, according to Medical Xpress.

STREAM changes when and how the sample is examined. Blood is mixed in a specialized broth that separates whole blood cells from individual bacteria while they grow. Instead of waiting for one final measurement, the team collects small samples at multiple points, uses genetic barcoding to detect bacterial fragments, and applies microscopic imaging with computer algorithms to remove visual clutter. The resulting analysis can identify the bacterial species and may indicate antibiotic susceptibility and existing resistance.

The team tested the approach on about 100 positive bloodstream infection samples donated by patients and stored at Penn State Hershey Medical Center’s clinical microbiology laboratory. For patients and clinicians, the practical promise is a faster answer about both the cause of infection and its treatment—potentially helping physicians avoid antibiotics that are too broad or poorly matched before the infection worsens. But STREAM remains a research-stage platform: the reported testing involved stored positive samples, and the team describes the broader diagnostic system as still under development.