Profionics

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition that claims more lives each year than all types of cancer combined. With worldwide deaths over 11 million annually, sepsis stands as one of the leading causes of death.

Profionics is focused on the advancement of world-leading research that has decoded the communication from the blood-immune system to rapidly detect sepsis and save lives.

By combining the host-response of the blood-immune system with leading-edge technology Profionics is developing a precision molecular biomarker test to diagnose and treat this life-threatening condition.
Decoding the communication from the blood-immune system to save lives
Our vision is to save lives by decoding the communication from the blood-immune system to rapidly and accurately detect sepsis.

Sepsis occurs when the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection, triggering widespread inflammation that can lead to severe tissue damage and organ failure. This overdrive response can escalate to septic shock, a critical condition characterised by a significant drop in blood pressure that can lead to death without prompt treatment.

Rapid and accurate diagnosis and treatment of sepsis is paramount.
Gene transcript expression and lipid metabolite abundances are diagnostic biomarkers of sepsis
Host-response analysis of 52 patient-invariant biomarkers, encompassing the inflammatory, metabolic, and adaptive pathways, to rapidly diagnose sepsis with high accuracy. Evaluating 52 patient-invariant biomarkers, leveraging transcriptomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics, in combination with artificial intelligence and machine-learning technology, results are compared against determined reference values to diagnose sepsis.

Host-response analysis is completed in under 30 minutes and requires only 50 uL of whole blood, versus blood culture tests that take up to two days or more and require large blood volumes, which is a problem for neonatal patients.

Furthermore, predictive value in identifying infection in suspected cases of neonatal sepsis with blood-culture negative results has been demonstrated in our research and is an unmet clinical need Profionics is addressing in its technology capabilities.

For the first time doctors will be able to analyse gene-expression and metabolites using AI.
World-leading research, data, and a BioBank, power analytical and clinical studies to develop a gold-standard host-response biomarker test

Project Sepsis was funded by the Welsh Government’s Sêr Cymru Programme and the European Regional Development Fund.

Professor Peter Ghazal was appointed Sêr Cymru Chair in 2017 and established Project Sepsis to strengthen sepsis and systems research within Cardiff University.

Project Sepsis has published world-leading research into sepsis, making substantive progress in the fight against neonatal sepsis and improving sepsis awareness with the Sepsis Trust UK.

Co-founded by Cardiff University, Professor Peter Ghazal, Dr Daniel White, NLC Health Ventures and Darren Fergus CEO, Profionics is focused on the advancement of the research work of over 20 research staff and 8 research students across 13 different hospital sites to decode the communication from the blood-immune system into an entire commercial assay to detect sepsis rapidly and accurately.

The recovery, purification, amplification and measurement of gene expression and metabolites from low volume blood samples taken from patients with suspected sepsis will be embedded into technology to accelerate the development pipeline and deliver our innovation better and faster, positioning Profionics to become the industry leader in host-response diagnostic testing.

Technology, world-leading research data, and a BioBank, means that Profionics can accelerate the development pipeline to deliver innovation in host-response diagnostic testing faster.