# Metabolic Assessment of Anti-Microbial Susceptibility within One Cell Cycle

> **NIH NIH R01** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS) · 2021 · $518,480

## Abstract

Project Summary
 The increasing emergence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria/fungi has become a growing global threat due
to the misuse and overuse of antimicrobial drugs. In order to combat infections and reduce anti-microbial
resistance, it is essential to detect and characterize bacterial/fungal susceptibility to antimicrobial in the early
stages of infections to reduce the inappropriate use of antimicrobial drugs and the death rate. To address this
urgent medical condition, it is critical to rapidly and accurately determine the antimicrobial susceptibility of
bacteria/fungi so that optimal therapy drugs can be prescribed early in the disease process. Conventional
methods for antimicrobial susceptibility testing, such as agar plates and broth dilution assays, detect phenotypic
resistance based on bacterial/fungal growth in the presence of antimicrobial drugs being tested. A major
limitation of these methods is that they are based on culture and require at least 16 to 24 h to conduct. To
address this unmet need, a microsecond-scale stimulated Raman spectroscopic imaging platform is proposed
to enable in situ detection of a single bacterium in complex environment at sub-micron resolution and early
determination of its response to an antimicrobial drug. An interdisciplinary team will conduct the proposed study.
Dr. Ji-Xin Cheng (PI) is an inventor and leading expert in coherent Raman scattering microscopy. Dr. Mohamed
Seleem (co-PI) is a DVM-scientist with broad expertise in infectious diseases and microbiology. Dr. Ryan F.
Relich (consultant), Medical Director of the Indiana University Health Clinical Virology and Serology Laboratories,
has extensive experience in clinical diagnosis of infectious diseases. The team’s central hypothesis that
microsecond-scale coherent Raman spectroscopic imaging will enable in situ analysis of single microbial cells
enriched directly from a clinical sample (whole blood). To test this hypothesis, the team will demonstrate fast
determination of antimicrobial response through microsecond-scale stimulated Raman imaging of metabolic
activity in a single living bacterium (aim 1), develop a microsecond-scale broadband stimulated Raman
spectroscopic microscope for label-free discrimination of bacteria and determination of anti-microbial
susceptibility (aim 2), and demonstrate early detection and fast antimicrobial susceptibility profiling of fungal
infections (aim 3). The proposed rapid AST method works for bacteria/fungi in complex environment and at the
single cell level. Therefore, long-time specimen culture and subculture to get bacterial/fungal isolate can be
avoided. The characteristics of this approach offer a significant advancement over current approaches for
treatment of bacterial/fungal infections.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10074141
- **Project number:** 5R01AI141439-03
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS)
- **Principal Investigator:** Ji-Xin Cheng
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $518,480
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-12-01 → 2022-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10074141

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10074141, Metabolic Assessment of Anti-Microbial Susceptibility within One Cell Cycle (5R01AI141439-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10074141. Licensed CC0.

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