The Longitude Prize 2014 challenges scientific professionals, backyard tinkerers, students, and entrepreneurs alike to come up with the solution to a simple but crucially important question: How can we prevent the continued rise of resistance to antibiotics?
The person or group who can create a point-of care test for bacterial infections that is “cheap, accurate, rapid and easy to use” and can guide clinicians in appropriate antibiotic selection will earn the £10 million (US $17.1 million) prize, backed by the Nesta foundation, Technology Strategy Board of the United Kingdom, and the British Broadcasting corporation (BBC).
“Point-of-care test kits will allow more targeted use of antibiotics, and an overall reduction in misdiagnosis and prescription. Effective and accurate point of care tests will form a vital part of the toolkit for stewardship of antibiotics in the future. This will ensure that the antibiotics we have now will be effective for longer and we can continue to control infections during routine and major procedures,” according to the Longitude Prize Web site.
