SurVir

Respiratory infectious diagnosis

In 2019, respiratory infections were the 4th leading cause of death worldwide and the 1st leading cause of death from contagious diseases. In 2020, a 10% increase was observed. Diagnosis of these respiratory infections caused by multiple pathogens is therefore critical.

However, there is a real gap between, on one side, diagnostic tools available on the market and, on the other side, information the practitioner needs in order to be able to quickly, reliably and comprehensively diagnose causes of influenza and respiratory symptoms. The COVID-19 crisis has further highlighted the importance of the diagnostic tool in the management of an epidemic and the serious shortcomings of existing available systems.

The objective of this SurVir project is to develop an automated diagnostic platform able to characterize and quantifiy respiratory samples on a large panel of seasonal epidemic viruses but also on emerging or re-emerging viruses with pandemic potential. The aim is thus twofold: (1) to carry out an accurate and rapid diagnosis (less than four hours) of patients presenting respiratory infections symptoms and (2) to carry out epidemiological surveillance of emerging viruses such as SARS-Cov-2 and its variants.

SurVir will also bring real added value thanks to a technological innovation which will make it possible to quantify detected viral targets, asset that is currently lacking in existing diagnostic biochips.

The consortium is made up of three players based in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region (AURA), whose complementarity will be used to innovate: AXO Science and EPIMOD are the industrial partners and the VirPath laboratory is the academic partner.