Rapid Antifungal Susceptibility Testing using Infrared Spectroscopy

Fungi are an important human pathogen that annually cause 1.5 million deaths worldwide. Candida are a common species of fungi and current diagnostics require several days to determine drug resistance. This leads to a delay in appropriate treatment, which is not favourable for patient outcomes. This project showed that chemical changes in Candida exposed to antifungal drugs could be deciphered using a technique called infrared spectroscopy. These changes enabled the distinction between drug sensitive and resistant Candida in 2-4 hours. This is a big improvement over current methods, providing a strong foundation for the development of a faster diagnostic tool.