The human innate immune system is capable of detecting all pathogens quickly, sensitively and effectively. It does this by selectively recognizing and binding to pathogen-specific biomarkers—or bacterial calling cards—via a suite of immune receptors.

However, it isn’t always capable of fighting off every bacterial infection on its own.

Modern medicine can come to the rescue, but only if doctors know what to treat for. Current point-of-care detection technologies are largely focused on identifying a specific pathogen that can be detected in a single sample—a task that requires insight doctors don’t always have until symptoms progress.

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