Simple method quickly tests hard-to-treat bacteria’s susceptibility to different antibiotics

The recent emergence of bacterial infections that are resistant to many existing antibiotics is driving an urgent need for tools to quickly identify the small number of therapies that are still effective for individual patients. Currently, multi-drug resistant bacteria often must be sent to specialized laboratories for analysis, leading to several days of delay before results can guide therapy. Now investigators have developed a simple and versatile method using inkjet printing technology to test such bacteria for susceptibility to antibiotics in a clinical setting.