A new bacteriophage-based rapid test has the potential to identify the specific pathogen causing a urinary tract infection (UTI) at the point of care, enabling targeted use of antibiotics.

The test uses naturally occurring phages identified as predators of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella and Enterococci that are genetically modified to make any bacterium they invade bioluminescent.

In a proof-of-concept study, researchers at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, were able to reliably detect the pathogenic bacteria in a urine sample in less than four hours. That compares to the 18 – 30 hours it takes to culture samples in a central lab and to identify a specific microbe using conventional diagnostics.