Medical devices & diagnostics · Rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing
Astek Diagnostics
A Baltimore company building a benchtop analyzer that aims to confirm a urinary tract infection and indicate which antibiotics are working, in about an hour. The device is investigational. Its first peer reviewed clinical data appeared in February 2026.
Four days for an answer
Mustafa Al-Adhami’s grandfather was 87 when a urinary tract infection put him in bed. The fix was supposed to be an antibiotic.
“It took doctors four days to tell him what antibiotic he should be taking,” Al-Adhami told an interviewer at a Maryland startup expo. “In the meantime, he was in pain, he was delirious, he ended up falling, breaking his hip.”
“And I just watched him go from a young 87 year old to a much, much older one.”
Nobody in that story made a mistake. The four days are built into the standard of care. A urine sample goes out for culture, the culture grows for 48 to 72 hours, and only then does a lab know which drug kills what is growing. The patient cannot wait, so the physician guesses.
Astek Diagnostics exists to compress that wait to roughly one hour. Its analyzer is named Jiddu, for the grandfather.
The problem, measured
Standard urine culture takes at least 48 to 72 hours and urinalysis about 24, according to the peer reviewed study Astek funded and published in February 2026. Empiric antibiotics fill the gap, and the overtreatment that follows is a routine driver of antimicrobial resistance.
The company puts numbers on the burden: 8.1 million UTI hospital visits a year in the United States, 47 percent treated with inappropriate antibiotics, a quarter of sepsis cases starting as UTIs. Those figures are company-stated.
The population Astek chose first is the hardest one. In people with neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction, catheters are common, symptoms are blunted by nerve injury, and bacteria are often present without infection. The Infectious Diseases Society of America recommends against using urine white cell counts to tell asymptomatic bacteriuria from infection in this group. The usual tests answer the wrong question, slowly.
An engineer and a university patent
Al-Adhami earned a master’s in 2015 and a doctorate in 2020 in mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He reached the United States after being a refugee in Jordan and in Europe, and settled in Baltimore because the Inner Harbor reminded him of Monaco.
The chemistry started as a way to spot cholera in drinking water. Cheap household filters took the urgency out of that use, so the work moved to blood and sepsis, then to urine, which carries a lighter regulatory load. Astek licensed the technology from UMBC, and Al-Adhami is an inventor on the university’s patent family for rapid detection of bacterial contamination, priority date June 6, 2017.
The company is a UMBC spinout, not a Johns Hopkins one. The Hopkins tie runs through one person: chief scientist Christopher Skipwith, a program director and associate teaching professor in Johns Hopkins biotechnology programs, who is also principal investigator on Astek’s NSF Phase II award. Suzanne Groah, a rehabilitation physician at MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital, is chief medical officer and holds future equity. Courtney Cavin is chief operating officer. On September 21, 2026 the company named Doug White, a diagnostics executive from Digene, Qiagen, BD Diagnostics and Emergent BioSolutions, executive chairman.
Whiteboard to first placement
TEDCO, the Maryland state technology agency, supplied a $165,000 technology assessment grant and a $150,000 company formation investment in 2020. Y Combinator took the company into its Summer 2021 batch, when the product was still a sepsis blood test called Eugris.
In April 2023, with a collaborator at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Astek reported a 150 sample pilot at 95 percent sensitivity and 92 percent specificity. In January 2024 MedStar Health Research Institute extended a partnership and gave Astek lab space. In October 2024 the company completed an FDA pre-submission meeting and said the agency pointed it toward the De Novo route, with trials focused on catheter associated UTIs. That December an alpha prototype ran 50 samples at MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital at 87.10 percent accuracy.
Then the calendar slipped. Market entry was late 2024 in the 2023 telling, 2025 through most of 2024, the first quarter of 2026 by the end of that year. In August 2026 the company announced a $750,000 TEDCO led round and a smaller milestone. “Five years ago, TEDCO funded an idea for what sounded like a science fiction machine. This fall, that machine goes into its first clinical placement,” Al-Adhami said.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Peer reviewed study | PLoS One, Feb 11, 2026. First in human, 289 urine samples from people with neurogenic bladder. Urine resazurin reduction ratio showed 92.73 percent accuracy against colony counts from standard culture. Funded by Astek, three company officers among the authors. It measures infection likelihood, not susceptibility, and calls for a prospective trial next. | Public record |
| FDA status | No Astek device in the FDA 510(k) or PMA databases as of Sep 22, 2026. The company reports a completed pre-submission meeting with CDRH in October 2024 and plans a De Novo request. A pre-submission is advice, not authorization, and is not public. | Public record |
| Breakthrough designation | None found for Astek. The breakthrough designation announced Sep 21, 2026 for a urine identification and susceptibility panel went to Pattern Bioscience. Such a designation speeds FDA review; it is not a clearance and says nothing about whether a device works. | Not found |
| Registered trials | No studies naming Astek on ClinicalTrials.gov as of Sep 22, 2026, though the company said in October 2024 that MedStar Health would sponsor trials at three sites from mid 2025. | Not found |
| Pilot performance | 150 samples, 95 percent sensitivity, 92 percent specificity, announced April 2023. In releases, not a journal. | Company-stated |
| Alpha feasibility | 50 samples at MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital, late 2024: accuracy 87.10 percent, specificity 93.33 percent, sensitivity 86.67 percent against culture and sensitivity testing. | Company-stated |
| Federal grants | NSF SBIR Phase I $255,975 (2021), Phase I $294,587 (2023), Phase II $991,832 (Sep 2024 to Aug 2026). Total $1,542,394. No NIH award found, though releases list NIH, FDA and BARDA among supporters. | Public record |
| Demand | Early access letters of intent from MedStar Health, the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Children’s National Hospital and urology practices, with $30 million of first year revenue forecast after clearance. | Company-stated |
| Launch timing | Announced market entry moved from late 2024 to 2025 to the first quarter of 2026. By August 2026 the milestone described was a first clinical placement. | Claims differ over time |
Read plainly: one published study supports the front half of the claim, that a fluorescent readout of bacterial metabolism can flag infection within an hour in a hard population. The back half, that the same hour yields a trustworthy antibiotic answer, rests on internal studies of 50 to 150 samples that have not been published or registered. The device is not cleared, and it cannot be sold for clinical use in the United States until the FDA acts.
What to watch
- The prospective trial the PLoS One authors called for, and whether it is registered.
- A De Novo submission, which demands more clinical evidence than a 510(k).
- Susceptibility data in a journal rather than a release.
- The first clinical placement promised for autumn 2026, and whether letters of intent become orders.
- The $15 million round the company described in 2024 and 2025.
In their words
“About three and a half years ago, my grandfather had a urinary tract infection.”
Mustafa Al-Adhami, founder and CEO, BioBuzz interview at the TEDCO Entrepreneur Expo, 2025 · Interview
“It has showed over 90% accuracy to date. And when I say 90%, the standard for the industry is like 66%.”
Mustafa Al-Adhami, on the alpha prototype, BioBuzz, 2025 · Interview
“I am excited about this collaboration as Astek’s technologic approach to the diagnosis of UTI takes into account our contemporary understanding of the urobiome in health and disease and has the potential to transform how we conceptualize, diagnose, and treat this common infection”
Suzanne Groah, MD, MedStar National Rehabilitation Network, quoted by Technical.ly, January 2024 · Independent
“Astek’s Jiddu platform has the potential to transform this process by removing the guesswork at the point of care, enabling earlier and more accurate antibiotic treatment.”
Suzanne Lynn Groah, MD, MSPH, chief medical officer, on the company website · Company-stated
“Five years ago, TEDCO funded an idea for what sounded like a science fiction machine. This fall, that machine goes into its first clinical placement.”
Mustafa Al-Adhami, in coverage of the TEDCO round, August 2026 · Independent
“I am excited to work closely with the board of directors, investors, and Mustafa as we accelerate the development and commercialization of a system that has the potential to significantly improve the standard of care for UTI diagnosis and treatment.”
Doug White, executive chairman, appointment release, September 21, 2026 · Company release
Related companies
Sources
- Public recordUrine resazurin reduction ratio as a biomarker of urinary tract infection in people with neurogenic bladder
- Public recordNSF awards 2136428, 2304069 and 2423587
- Public recordUS patents 10948414, 11788962 and 12455240, assigned to UMBC
- Public recordForm D filings, Astek Diagnostics, Inc., CIK 0001972498
- State agencyBaltimore biotech company works to protect women’s health
- State agencyTEDCO Invests in Astek Diagnostics
- IndependentStartup Astek Dx Aims to Deliver One-Hour UTI Testing With Optical Test System
- IndependentMedStar Health works with Astek Diagnostics on UTI solution research
- InterviewHarnessing Maryland’s Ecosystem for Success
- IndependentAstek Diagnostics raises $750K seed to speed up antibiotic testing
- IndependentFDA grants breakthrough device designation to urine ID/AST panel
- IndependentChristopher Skipwith faculty profile
- CompanyPre-Submission Meeting with FDA
- CompanySuccessful Completion of Q4-50 Alpha Feasibility Study
- CompanyAstek Diagnostics Appoints Doug White as Executive Chairman
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
