2. Academic Validation
  3. Ultra-rapid nanoplasmonic colorimetry in microfluidics for antimicrobial susceptibility testing directly from specimens

Ultra-rapid nanoplasmonic colorimetry in microfluidics for antimicrobial susceptibility testing directly from specimens

  • Nat Nanotechnol. 2026 Feb;21(2):288-299. doi: 10.1038/s41565-025-02075-z.
Mahsa Jalali # 1 2,  Tamer AbdElFatah # 1,  Carolina Del Real Mata 1,  Imman I Hosseini 1,  Sripadh Guptha Yedire 1,  Geoffrey A McKay 2,  Rachel Corsini 2,  Roozbeh Siavash Moakhar 1,  Hamed Shieh 1,  Grace Reszetnik 2,  Seyed Vahid Hamidi 1,  Cedric P Yansouni 2 3 4 5 6,  Dao Nguyen 2 5 6,  Sara Mahshid 7 8 9
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Bioengineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • 2 Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • 3 Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • 4 J.D. MacLean Centre for Tropical and Geographic Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • 5 McGill Antimicrobial Resistance Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • 6 Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
  • 7 Department of Bioengineering, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. [email protected].
  • 8 McGill Antimicrobial Resistance Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. [email protected].
  • 9 Division of Experimental Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. [email protected].
  • # Contributed equally.
PMID: 41629481 DOI: 10.1038/s41565-025-02075-z
Abstract

Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) technologies that rapidly identify pathogenic bacteria and their resistance phenotypes are critical in addressing the antimicrobial resistance crisis, enabling timely and precise Antibiotic treatment decisions. We present a modular automated platform based on nanoplasmonic colorimetry in microfluidics for parallel Bacterial identification and phenotypic profiling of AST (QolorPhAST), achieving an eightfold enhancement in detection rapidity. QolorPhAST reduces drug susceptibility profiling times in direct specimens from days to minutes, bypassing overnight cultures and pathogen isolation typically required in standard clinical AST workflows. The approach was validated with a broad range of microbial pathogens, spanning 10 Bacterial species and 34 strains across various Antibiotic concentrations to identify pathogens and Antibiotic minimal inhibitory concentrations in a multiplexed fashion. In a proof-of-concept clinical study, QolorPhAST was tested with a cohort of blinded patient samples suspected of urinary tract infections, achieving 100% accuracy in species identification, an average categorical agreement of 91.81% and an average essential agreement of 86.4%, with a turnaround time of 36 min from specimen introduction to result. The study suggests that QolorPhAST, with its ease of use and cost-effectiveness, can be a transformative solution to address the antimicrobial resistance burden.

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