BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

A prize for fighting resistance

NIH and HHS commit $20M prize money for new diagnostics competition

September 22, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

NIH and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the launch of their Antimicrobial Resistance Diagnostic Challenge on Sept. 8, a key pillar of the National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria announced by President Obama two years ago. Aimed at curbing the spread of antimicrobial resistance, the challenge will award a total of $20 million to teams developing rapid point-of-care diagnostics for determining what type of microbe has caused an infection.

Instead of working through the traditional granting or contracting mechanisms at NIH to develop a diagnostic, the White House wanted to expand the scope of applicants beyond the usual players and bring in ideas from other fields...