Draft:Astrego Diagnostics

= Astrego Diagnostics AB = Astrego Diagnostics AB was a diagnostics company in Uppsala, Sweden. It is now a part of Sysmex Corporation under the namn Sysmex Astrego AB

The company developed products for Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing (AST).

Principle of detection
Bacterial cells are trapped in a microfluidic device that allows monitoring of growth of individual cells with phase contrast microscopy. The device have different sets of cell trapping channels that can be exposed to different antibiotics or different concentrations of antibiotic. If the bacteria are susceptible or not is determined by the growth rate response of the bacteria in one a set of cell channels, that are exposed to an antibiotic, as compared to the response in a set cell channels, that are not exposed to the antibiotic. The speed of the assay comes from measuring the length extension of individual bacteria and averaging over a few hundred bacteria to minimize the measurement error. These principles are described in the patent by Elf, Baltekin and Andersson from 2015 and the corresponding  publication. In contrast, traditional AST methods typically depend on cells to divide and multiply which takes longer time.

History
The company was founded in 2017 as a spinout from Uppsala University. The company’s first product was rapid test for Antibiotic Susceptibility for Uninary Tract Infection (UTI). The early development is described in a book by AMR declaration trust

In May 2022, Sysmex acquired Astrego to strengthen synergies between the companies and accelerate clinical application of the rapid antimicrobial susceptibility test. With the acquisition, Astrego became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sysmex, and the company name changed to Sysmex Astrego AB.