# Developing a high-throughput panel for rapid detection of pathogens causing infectious keratitis

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE · 2024 · $191,875

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Infectious keratitis, also known as corneal infection, is frequently caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, or parasites.
Each pathogen needs a unique treatment approach. Hence, rapid determination of the underlying pathogen
causing the disease is of utmost importance. However, current gold standard still includes culture of corneal
samples, which not only can take days to identify the pathogen, but also still leads to false negative results in
many cases. The delay in identifying the appropriate treatment strategy causes significant complications and
unfavorable clinical outcomes, including blindness, which is why infectious keratitis is the 5th leading cause of
vision impairment and blindness and the main cause of corneal blindness worldwide. Together, more rapid
methods to determine pathogens are urgently needed, and would present a significant improvement in patient
care. Here, we describe the development of a novel TaqMan-based assay, termed TLLPS (Thermal Lysis Low
Input Pathogen Screen) that can rapidly distinguish between the most common pathogens causing infectious
keratitis, with several advantages over other approaches: First, we designed our system to work with genomic
DNA, which allows avoiding RNA-extraction, reverse transcription steps, and the significant challenge of
heterogeneity emerging from isolating small amounts of heavily degraded RNA from the eye surface. Second,
our assay allows using 1 µl of raw and un-processed biological fluids, which are submitted directly into a thermal
lysis and genomic pre-amplification step, avoiding any purification steps, which would introduce variability and
cause sample loss of the small amounts extracted from the ocular surface. Here we propose to expand and
prospectively validate the assay. Further, we will test the use of ocular swabs for more rapid detection. With the
completion of this proposal, we envision to have developed a clinically feasible, quick, and reliable way to identify
the most common pathogens causing keratitis, and significantly improve patient outcomes through rapid
identification of the correct treatment strategies.
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## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10870548
- **Project number:** 1R21EY036185-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Stefan Kurtenbach
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $191,875
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-06-01 → 2026-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10870548

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10870548, Developing a high-throughput panel for rapid detection of pathogens causing infectious keratitis (1R21EY036185-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10870548. Licensed CC0.

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