Inflammatix announced today that it has been named a finalist in Fast Company's 2018 World Changing Ideas Awards for its novel HostDx tests, which read the immune system to tackle the global health problems of antibiotic resistance and sepsis. The annual award honors businesses, policies, projects and concepts that offer innovative solutions to the issues facing humanity. Finalists and winners will be highlighted in the May issue of the print magazine, which hits newsstands on April 17.

Inflammatix is working with clinical diagnostics instrument partners to commercialize its HostDx tests, which will initially target acute bacterial and viral infections and sepsis. Rather than look for specific pathogens or biomarkers of disease, which lack accuracy and speed, the HostDx tests measure the genomic "fingerprint" of the host response to disease and apply proprietary machine learning algorithms to accurately identify whether an infection is bacterial or viral – and thus whether antibiotics are required – and to determine if the patient is likely to have or develop sepsis.

The tests are intended for use in hospitals an clinics. “HostDx Sepsis” is for use in hospitals to determine the presence, type and severity of infection to make smarter antibiotic prescribing and admission decisions. “HostDx Fever” is for use in clinics to quickly determine whether infections are likely viral or bacterial to prescribe antibiotics smarter. This could be an important step in helping to minimize the  inappropriate use of antibiotics and the consequent rise of antibiotic resistance.