New Use of Lung Probe May Curb Overuse of Antibiotics

The fibre-optic tube can show within 60 seconds whether a patient needs to be treated with the drugs.

It is hoped the Proteus technology could tackle the emergence of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

The project has been developed by scientists at the universities of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt and Bath.

Proteus has received £2m of funding from the Wellcome Trust.

It will also be boosted by nearly £1m from the CARB-X antibiotic resistance project co-funded by the US government and Wellcome.

Proteus uses chemicals that light up when they attach to specific types of bacterial infection.

This fluorescence is detected using fibre-optic tubes that are small enough to be threaded deep inside patients' lungs.

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