BaseTrack

The Problem

Blood poisoning demands faster answers

Bloodstream infection kills. The bottleneck is time.

🩸 What is bacteraemia?

When bacteria enter the bloodstream it can rapidly become life-threatening. Every hour without the right antibiotic increases the risk of organ failure and death.

⏳ The diagnostic bottleneck

Traditional lab methods grow bacteria in a bottle then run culture-based tests. Identifying the organism and its drug resistance typically takes 24–72 hours.

💊 Antibiotic resistance

Broad-spectrum antibiotics are prescribed when a patient presents with bacteraemia. Resistance genes can render this ineffective; sensitive organisms can make it an overreaction. In both cases BaseTrack finds the answer sooner and improves patient care.

🧪 Fixed-panel PCR limits

Rapid PCR can only detect a pre-set list of targets — it cannot identify novel resistance mechanisms or organisms outside its fixed panel. PCR platforms also carry significantly higher capital and running costs than BaseTrack.

How It Works

The BaseTrack pipeline

From positive blood culture to report in 4–10 hours.

Step 1 Blood culture turns positive

A laboratory incubator detects bacterial growth in the patient's blood culture bottle — the starting signal for the BaseTrack workflow.

Step 2 DNA extraction

The sample is processed using bead-beating and a specialist extraction kit to isolate pure DNA for sequencing.

Step 3 Nanopore sequencing

DNA is loaded onto an Oxford Nanopore MinION — a palm-sized device that reads DNA in real time, streaming data to the cloud.

Step 4 BaseTrack cloud analysis

Algorithms identify the organism and scan for over 2,500 resistance genes across the streamed data.

Step 5 Clinical report

A structured report names the pathogen and flags resistance markers — days before conventional culture results.

Comparison

BaseTrack vs conventional

Standard culture

BaseTrack WGS

24–72 hrs

4–10 hrs

Fixed antibiotic panels

Whole genome — unlimited targets

Phenotypic resistance only

Full genotypic AMR profile

Expressed genes only

>2,500 resistance genes

Established standard

Designed for ASP integration

Why It Matters

Better outcomes for patients and hospitals

⚡ Hours, not days

4–10 hours versus 24–72. Every hour saved is clinically significant.

🧬 2,500+ resistance genes

Detects CRE, MRSA, VRE and more — before cultures are needed.

🎯 Targeted therapy sooner

De-escalation from broad-spectrum antibiotics to the right drug sooner.

🔄 Adaptable platform

Unlike fixed-panel PCR, WGS detects any organism. Databases update as threats emerge.

Meet the Founders

BaseTrack Limited

William Hendy Chief Executive Officer

William Hendy is an HCPC-registered Biomedical Scientist with 15 years' experience in clinical microbiology across Ireland and the United Kingdom. His career spans the full spectrum of diagnostic settings — from large centralised hub laboratories to small remote facilities — encompassing NHS, HSE, and private environments. As CEO and co-founder of BaseTrack, he leads on scientific design, regulatory strategy, clinical validation, and commercial strategy.

Alastair Mackie Chief Product Officer

Alastair Mackie is a software engineer with over a decade of experience building cloud-native, data-intensive platforms across healthcare, logistics, and e-commerce. He specialises in Node.js microservice architecture, AWS infrastructure, and NoSQL data systems. Prior to engineering, Alastair worked in corporate banking and M&A strategy — bringing a commercially grounded perspective to the go-to-market realities of a MedTech product like BaseTrack.