RapidSOA: A fast and accurate test for diagnosing highly prevalent sexually transmitted infections

In this project, Rapidemic and the University of Maastricht will join forces to develop and evaluate Rapidemic’s technology for point-of-care multiplex diagnosis of two highly prevalent sexually transmitted infections, chlamydia and gonorrhoea, using patient-derived samples. Rapidemic is an innovative Leiden-based start-up company developing reliable and rapid technology for decentralized molecular diagnosis. The team at the University of Maastricht is responsible for testing of sexually transmitted infections from the public health services in the Limburg region, and hosts the national reference laboratory for Chlamydia trachomatis.

Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) are common sexually transmitted infections (STIs) that infect millions of people each year. In the Netherlands and Europe, these infections have been increasing for several years. These infections can lead to a series of symptoms in patients as well as lead to long-term complications and are seen as an important threat to public health. trained personnel, and as a direct result are performed in laboratory settings.

In this project, Rapidemic and the MUMC will collaborate to facilitate the development and evaluation of Rapidemic’s first product for equipment-free multiplex single-visit diagnosis of the two bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoea. Rapidemic’s test has the potentially to disrupt the current diagnosis of STI’s, by combining the accuracy of lab-grade testing, with the ease of use of quick tests.

In this project, the performance of the Rapidemic test will be determined using samples from biobanks and derived directly from patients. The performance of the test will also be benchmarked against other molecular diagnostic technologies. The data generated will be used to advise the next steps in the company’s product development efforts

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