First Light Diagnostics has announced the authorization of additional funding from BARDA of $4.3 million to develop its MultiPath™ platform. This additional funding from the US Government's biomedical research grant authority given to First Light Diagnostics brings the total up to $27.1million. 

First Light Diagnostics is a developer of automated products for rapid diagnosis and treatment of life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant infections and its MultiPath platform can perform up to 200 pathogen identification tests or 40 antimicrobial susceptibility tests per 8-hour shift. The funding provided by BARDA will help First Light develop tests that are currently in development which include diagnostic tests for anthrax and urinary tract infections (UTI) pathogen identification (ID) and culture-free, anti-microbial susceptibility testing (AST). 

Using primary patient samples directly without a culture step the  MultiPath technology can provide pathogen identification in 30 minutes and AST results in approximately four hours, MultiPath's easy to use, automated benchtop platform provides rapid results, high throughput and continuous random access.  Utilizing MultiPath, Clinicians will be able to administer the most effective therapy during the onset of infection versus waiting several days for results.