DRAIGON takes centre stage at ESCMID Global 2026
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
The DRAIGON consortium had an exciting presence at ESCMID 2026, with a keynote talk at the Innovation Theatre, live booth demonstrations, and the world premiere of the DRAIGONprep.
Dr Daniel Kirilly and Dr Bhanu Sinha took to the stage at the Innovation Theatre to present the DRAIGON workflow and how the project is working to deliver actionable results from patient samples in half the time. Alongside the talk, attendees got a first look at prototype hardware currently in development.
“What resonated most with visitors was seeing digital microfluidics bring full automation to a workflow that has long been manual and error-prone. Even at this stage, people could clearly see how DRAIGONprep is moving us toward more reliable and standardised sequencing workflows.” — Dr Daniel Kirilly, Innovation Director, Camtech
ESCMID 2026 also marked the world premiere of DRAIGONprep, a novel approach to sample preparation engineered to remove one of the biggest bottlenecks in sequencing workflows. Visitors to Booth G62 were able to see the device in action, meet the team, and learn more about the full DRAIGON workflow solution and health technology assessment (HTA) team. For those working in microbiology, infectious diseases, or diagnostics, the message was clear: faster sample prep means faster answers, and in AMR, that changes everything.
The booth also featured an interactive health economics platform developed by the Health-Ecore team, designed to bring real-world evidence to life and support decision-making around rapid diagnostics. Visitors were able to explore the impact of faster diagnostics on time to optimal therapy, mortality, length of hospital stay, and antibiotic usage, highlighting the clinical and economic case for the DRAIGON approach.
“At ESCMID Global 2026, it was clear that innovation in diagnostics must go hand in hand with real-world applicability. DRAIGON reflects this approach with health technology assessment built in from the start and ongoing efforts to validate implementation in low-resource settings, including a pilot in Albania.” Dr Irina Meln, Head of Innovation at EVI and DRAIGON project coordinator.
The event demonstrated both the momentum behind the project and the growing need across the AMR community for diagnostics that are faster, smarter, and built around real clinical need. Consortium partners came away energised by the conversations had, the connections made, and the feedback received.
