Research team of Seoul National University Prof. Sunghoon Kwon developed a direct, rapid antimicrobial susceptibility test.
- Determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of bacteria in six hours.
- Core technology which can be used to rapidly identify appropriate antimicrobial agents for the treatment of infections and to prevent the spread of super-bacteria.

▲ Research team: (from the left) Prof. Sunghoon Kwon of department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Dr. Juingil Choi of Quantamatrix, Ph.D. candidate Hyun Yong Jeong   

 
A direct and rapid antimicrobial susceptibility test, which diagnoses antibiotic resistance of bacteria which cause pneunomia, septic anemia and infectious diseases, was developed by the domestic research team. Seoul National University, College of Engineering (Dean Kunwoo Lee) announced on 15th that the joint research team of Prof. Sunghoon Kwon of department of Electrical and Computer Engineering developed a direct and rapid antimicrobial susceptibility test using mircopatterned plastic microchips.
 
Prof. Kwon explained the research background as “Antibiotics are essential for human survival, but indiscriminate use has resulted in resistant super bacteria worldwide. Since a conventional antimicrobial susceptibility test uses 3 days, antibiotic abuse can occur during the testing period. Therefore, the technique to shorten this period was urgent.”
 
The research team developed a biochip and automated analytical platform to shorten antimicrobial susceptibility testing time. The newly developed test use automated microscope to observe the response of individual bacteria to the antibiotics instead of using conventional method of detecting changes in bacterial populations after long period of culture. As a result, it succeeded in confirming the response of the bacteria derived from the patient to the antibiotic within 6 hours.
 
The research team conducted a direct and rapid antimicrobial susceptibility test on clinical strains from 206 patients provided by Seoul National University Hospital’s diagnostic laboratory. The results obtained within 6 hours satisfied the criteria for antimicrobial susceptibility testing by FDA, United States.
 
Prof. Kwon explained “If we could identify appropriate antibiotics for the infection treatment through a rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing, we can increase the survival rate and reduce socioeconomic costs. Furthermore, this technology can contribute to the stagnant development of the new antibiotics since it can be used for the antibiotic screenings.”
 
The research result was published in the international journal Scientific Reports on the last April. The research could be succeeded thanks to the collaboration of Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul National University College of Engineering and a company Quantamatrix.
 
This research was funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT and Ministry of Health and Welfare. The research was lead by the Prof. Kwon and the first author Jungil Choi (Quantamatrix), Hyunyong Jeong (Ph.D. candidate) HeeChan Kim (Seoul National University Hospital), Sanghoon Song(Seoul National Hospital) and Taeksoo Kim(Seoul National University Hospital) joined the research team. The technology is now under commercialization and medical device certification process and will be commercialized in the domestic market within this year.
 

▲ The automated observation and analyzing techniques of the rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing process.