Thursday, December 4th 2025
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CARB-X awards ProtonDx $1m in seed funding to aid fight against respiratory infections​
Major investment to evaluate whether blood can be used as sample to diagnose pediatric lower respiratory tract infections, which are linked to 700,000 child deaths each year.
London UK, December 4th, 2025 - CARB-X has awarded ProtonDx US$1M in seed funding to evaluate whether blood can be used as a suitable sample type for diagnosing pediatric lower-respiratory tract infections (LRTIs).
ProtonDx, in collaboration with Imperial College London, will evaluate RNA biomarkers of the body’s immune response to infection and translate them to gene-based assays that can be used to deliver rapid clinical decision making in emergency and remote care settings for the treatment of pediatric LRTIs.
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LRTIs are a leading cause of illness and death worldwide, and pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death in children under five, claiming the lives of over 700,000 children each year globally.
The assays may be developed further as the foundation for blood-based pediatric LRTI testing on ProtonDx’s point-of-care molecular platform, Lacewing, which combines high-purity nucleic acid extraction, real-time isothermal amplification (qLAMP), and lab-on-a-chip electrochemical sensors (eLAMP).
ProtonDx has validated the technology for detection of infections with multiple pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2, dengue virus, and Klebsiella spp.
“This CARB-X grant recognizes the urgent need for less-invasive sample types to facilitate accurate diagnosis in pediatric care. By combining our portable Lacewing technology with Imperial College London’s biomarker expertise, we aim to deliver a rapid, precise diagnostic assay from blood samples that can save lives, reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, and help combat antimicrobial resistance,” said Nick Moser, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of ProtonDx.
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“Rapid, reliable diagnostics are essential to ensuring that children with lower-respiratory tract infections receive the right treatment quickly, while also helping to reduce the misuse of antibiotics,” said Richard Alm, Interim Chief of R&D at CARB-X. “We look forward to evaluating whether ProtonDx’s blood-based approach has the potential to provide clinicians with actionable results at the point of care.”
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Read the CARB-X press release in full for further details.
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Nick Moser, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of ProtonDX, said:
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"We aim to deliver a rapid, precise diagnostic assay from blood samples that can save lives, reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, and help combat antimicrobial resistance.”