Ultra-rapid nanoplasmonic colorimetry in microfluidics for antimicrobial susceptibility testing directly from specimens

Researchers developed QolorPhAST, a modular, automated antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) platform that uses nanoplasmonic colorimetry and microfluidics to rapidly identify bacteria and determine their antibiotic resistance. The system delivers results within minutes rather than days, eliminating the need for overnight cultures and pathogen isolation, and achieving an eightfold increase in detection speed compared with conventional AST.

QolorPhAST was validated across 10 bacterial species and 34 strains, accurately identifying pathogens and their minimal inhibitory concentrations in a multiplexed setup. In a proof-of-concept clinical study on blinded urinary tract infection samples, it achieved 100% species identification accuracy, with 91.8% categorical and 86.4% essential agreement, and a total turnaround time of 36 minutes. The findings indicate that QolorPhAST is a fast, accurate, user-friendly, and cost-effective approach with strong potential to significantly improve antibiotic decision-making and reduce the burden of antimicrobial resistance.