University of Wisconsin biotechnology will soon have the capability to accomplish unprecedented feats, thanks to $23.6 million in recent investments in a Madison company.

The company, OpGen, licenses UW biotechnology and will now be able to channel its energy toward developing instruments that can analyze patient samples for bacteria and fungi in a matter of hours, rather than the current 2-3 days.

These instruments will be sold to hospitals worldwide.

"The fundamental change is now we're focusing strictly on using our system to investigate human infections disease," said Colin Dykes, OpGen's chief scientific officer.

Dykes explained it currently takes hospitals precious time to analyze samples, sometimes preventing them from prescribing antibiotics in time to treat its patients effectively.

"Currently, it'll come back in 2-3 days, which is too slow to have any clinical impact," Dykes said. "This will give physicians the information to treat their patients more quickly."

The technology that will be used to develop these instruments was originally invented in UW laboratories, according to David Schwartz, a UW professor of Chemistry and Genetics, who helped develop the technology.

"The technology comes from the university, and OpGen is commercializing this technology," Schwartz said. "The good part about it is, it's good to see UW technology out there in a commercial setting, so this way more people can use it."

According to Schwartz, the technology — called optical mapping — is a single-molecule approach for genome analysis, which allows analysis of the genetic composition of everything from bacteria to humans.

"What we're able to do is take DNA molecules out of these cells, put them on surfaces, and barcode them," Schwartz said. "This allows us to be able to uncover the genetic information."

Dykes said the new funding also has significant implications for the company itself, as OpGen had to downsize its staff by about two-thirds just last spring due to a lack of funds.

"We had to cut costs until new funding came in," Dykes said. "But now we're rebuilding our company, and it will be bigger than before."

According to an OpGen news release, the funding was led by CHL Medical Partners, Highland Capital Partners and Versant Ventures, with previous investor Mason Wells also participating.

"We are extremely well-backed now, and backed by companies that have a history of success," Dykes said. "They expect us to really make a huge impact on the clinical microbiology market and patient care."

Dykes said OpGen played a critical role in helping the FBI trace the source of the food poisoning linked to spinach last year.

"Our competitive advantage for the clinical microbiology application comes from the fact that our genomic DNA analysis system provides a much more precise identification of bacteria and fungi than the growth-based "phenotypic" methods still used today," Dykes said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald. "These two features, which have the potential to revolutionize treatment of acute infectious disease, are what convinced these top-tier investors to back OpGen."