Areas of Interest

Get information about BD areas of research interest

Emerging Clinical Applications in Flow Cytometry

Novel clinical flow cytometry assay and evidence development in emerging areas. Proposals will be considered in fields such as autoimmunity, allergy, oncology (including heme and solid tumors), transplant, neurology, cardiology, infectious disease, and others, where development of novel flow cytometry assays may yield unique insights and benefits that address unmet needs in clinical settings.
Extending established clinical flow cytometry assays with new biomarkers and/or indications. Proposals will build on existing clinical flow cytometry assays, particularly existing IVD and/or CE-IVD kits from BD (including Cytognos), as-is or with the option for modest additions or changes in some markers, to develop evidence for new applications and indications.
Flow cytometry biomarkers and Companion Diagnostics. Proposals will develop flow cytometry assays and evidence for new or improved predictive or monitoring biomarkers for existing and/or investigational therapeutics.

Competitive proposals should include evidence development using relevant clinical samples and/or a clinical study.

Single Cell Multiomics

Immune repertoire profiling via single cell sequencing
Advances and/or novel research in protein profiling via single cell CITE-Seq
Single cell multiomic studies that leverage multiple modalities from a single sequencing read out, such as combined transcriptomics + proteomics, transcriptomics + epigenetics, or other combined omics
Deep cellular subset interrogation through flow cytometry enrichment followed by single cell sequencing
Evaluations of different single cell CITE-Seq methods and their applicability to different cell types or biological investigations
Translational research via single cell sequencing that leads to potential future clinical solutions
The use of single cell sequencing for research in infectious diseases
Evaluation of rare cell populations using single cell methods

Competitive proposals should include elements highlighting unique and/or differentiating aspects of scM technologies. These may include areas such as cell recovery across cell types, CITESeq signal to noise, QC metrics, reproducibility and repeatability, unique applications in single cell Multiomics, etc.

Specimen Management

Comparative safety and performance studies of:

BD Vacutainer^® Blood Collection Needles, Blood Collection Sets and Accessories:
- Sample quality
- Fill rates and fill volume
- Pain perception
- HCW Safety (NSIs)
- Diagnostic accuracy
- Efficiency
- Total Cost of Ownership
BD Vacutainer^® Blood Collection Tubes, including those intended for collection of serum, plasma and anticoagulated whole blood
- Accuracy, reproducibility, sample stability and robustness for high sensitivity immunoassays or assays targeting analytes sensitive to cellular contamination
- Impact of sample quality issues such as hemolysis, fibrin, etc. on laboratory practices and efficiencies
BD Vacutainer^® Urine Collection Tubes, including those intended for urinalysis and for culture and sensitivity testing
PAXgene specimen collection products for nucleic acid stabilization including tubes, devices and purification kits
- Liquid biopsy assay sensitivity for ccfDNA, methylated ccfDNA or multimodality assays in oncology patients and other populations, or paired with treatment outcomes
- Impact of preanalytical errors on liquid biopsy lab practices and efficiencies
ABG syringes: Comparison of the home-made (regular syringe flushed with bulk heparin solution)
ABG collection devices to BD ABG syringes with LiH anticoagulant for the assessment of the following metrics:
- Workflow
- Sample quality
- Analyte performance
- Impact on instrument maintenance / down time
- Economic impact

Women’s Health & Molecular

Impact of patient awareness campaign for OBGYN settings for Vaginitis or Vaginosis and CT/GC screening rates using molecular tests
Comparative performance of HPV+ triage in cervical cancer screening – extended genotyping versus dual stain cytology and methylation
HEOR analysis of the extended genotyping colposcopy referral in real world settings – impact on long-term patient care and outcomes
HEOR analysis of self-sampling in national screening programs – long-term follow-up and cost effectiveness as an adjunct to current standard of care
Anal Paps and HPV testing in the management of anal cancer (screening and treatment in the post-ANCHOR study era)
Meta-analysis of SurePath, ThinPrep and conventional cytology for the diagnosis of cervical disease.
Use of serial extended genotyping for patient management (modeling study -can extended genotyping and persistence monitoring replace current standard of care triage strategies?). Strategies for both developed and developing screening programs (e.g., top tier risk immediately referred for VIA/treatment in LMICs)
Development of cloud-based cell phone results reporting systems for self-collection in LMICs (test kit ordering, centralized results reporting and transmission to individual cell phone users for management and recall)
Viral load in the management of HPV+ patients
The utility of extended genotyping for the management of head and neck cancers
Preference of women for self-collection – urine versus vaginal swab collection
Health economics and outcomes research (cost, patient outcomes, reimbursement, etc.): Enteric targeted panels (BD MAX™ EBP, xEBP, EVP, EPP) vs. broad panels (i.e., BioFire® FilmArray® GI Panel or Luminex xTAG^® GPP)
Geographic stewardship of enteric assays: Geographical distribution of enteric organisms
BD MAX^® Suite of Enteric Assays (EBP, xEBP, EVP, EPP) compared to traditional culture methods: Performance, patient outcomes, outcomes to assess measure: time to admission/transfer; impact of additional diagnostic tests to ascertain cause of infection time to confirmation of antibiotic therapy; impact on antibiotic consumption
Workflow analysis of enteric screening with BD MAX^® Suite of Enteric Assays (EBP, xEBP, EVP, EPP) using the BD FecalSwab™ and reflex testing to traditional culture on automated specimen processing systems (i.e., BD Kiestra™)
Benefits of using molecular as first screening vs. culture: BD MAX™ MRSA-XT and/or Cdiff MAX
Geographical stewardship of BD MAX™ CPO assay as a screening assay: Geographical distribution and prevalence of CPO in the United States
Patient management and outcome differences with BD Vaginal Panel compared to other molecular VP assays
Advantages of Candida spp. differentiation with BD Vaginal Panel
Workflow studies with BD CTGCTV2 and BD Vaginal Panel with BD Molecular Swab (with or without comparator molecular method)

Clinical Microbiology

Impact of adoption of automation of microbiology for ID/AST, especially for patients with CRO/CPO/resistant bugs coupled with strong AMS teams- endpoints rate of time to therapy change, rate of therapy change, average time from ID/AST results to therapy change, correlated patient outcomes by subgroup and controlling for underlying comorbidities, by major bug type
Chart review, identifying, quantifying and measuring the clinical impact of false negatives in blood culture for suspected blood stream infections (BSI)
Economic impact and quality error reduction through implementation of training programs offered by industry (BD Service teams, PAQC, BSI, etc.)
Impact of automation and AI (imaging) on sample TAT, quality and efficiency KPI
Use of MBT Sepsityper™ in Molecular workflow of positive blood culture bottles: i.e., using MBT Sepsityper™ prior to testing positive blood culture bottles on molecular assays to first screen for available targets (increase the pre-test probability of the molecular assay). Address overall time savings, cost savings, actionable results when organism are identified on MALDI that are not targets on the molecular assay

Point of Care

Prospective value realization of adoption of point-of-care testing in retail pharmacies (plus care models for triage and patient management especially with telehealth) – Endpoints around workflow, patient access, billing realization, and patient and provider/pharmacist satisfaction/convenience/usability
- Ideally starting with acute infections, longer term registrations that follow downstream outcomes of patients via claims tracing for routine testing and monitoring of common comorbidities vs total metabolic panel would be great too
- Could extend this to at home testing space as well

Vascular Access Devices:

Strategies to reduce variation in practice and enable proper device selection and placement
Strategies to reduce unnecessary PIV restarts and multiple insertion attempts
Solutions to ensure the right catheter for the right patient at the right time
Use of guidance technologies including ultrasound guidance, tip location systems and tip confirmation systems improve clinicians’ ability to locate and access veins
Health economics and clinical evidence related to difficult venous access patients in peripheral IV catheters

Catheter Care and Medication Delivery:

Strategies to reduce vascular access complications and improve patient and economic outcomes
Use of appropriate vascular access practices and devices to care for and maintain intravenous lines for the duration of each patient’s treatment
Strategies to ensure proper care and maintenance of catheters
Best practices to enable safer and more effective vascular access management

Infusion Preparation and Delivery:

Strategies to protect healthcare workers from hazardous drug exposure
Best practices in the detection of hazardous drug surface contamination
Evaluation of the delivery of safe, efficient IV administration solutions

Enterprise-wide inventory optimization
Best practices in end-to-end medication safety
Strategies and technologies to prevent opioid diversion
Medication management in non-acute care settings/ care continuum
Best infusion practices to deliver specialty therapies and/or treat special patient populations

Key ESKD Research Priorities

Utilization of a large registry or data base to study outcome data on the following:
- Use of novel hemodialysis catheters
- >18 month clinical, economic, and safety outcomes utilizing WavelinQ™ endoAVF, Lutonix™ DCB Catheter, or Covera™ Vascular Covered Stent
- U.S. patient data utilizing WavelinQ™ endoAVF; inclusion of underserved patient populations in analysis
- Global utilization of WavelinQ™ endoAVF with vessel access obtained via the radial or ulnar arteries
Utilization of Patient Reported Outcomes for cosmesis of arteriovenous access

Key Oncology Research Priorities

Clinical outcomes, QoL and budget impact of Caterpillar™ and Caterpillar-Micro™ arterial embolization device
Patient experience, procedural outcomes and economic assessment of Powered Bone and Bone Marrow Biopsy System (Trek™) vs alternative therapies
Optimization of clinical, QoL and economical outcomes in the breast biopsy procedures with the use of EleVation™ (Vacuum Assisted Biopsy) and breast tissue markers in patients with breast lesions
Analysis of the clinical, QoL and budget impact of Vacuum Assisted Excision (VAE) versus open excision in benign breast lesions
Patient experience, QoL, clinical outcomes and economic impact Brachytherapy in patients with prostate cancer
Evaluation of clinical, QoL and economic impact of pleural or peritoneal drainage systems on non-malignant pleural or peritoneal effusions
Analysis of the clinical and budget impact of the selection of a vascular access device in patients receiving chemotherapy and other long term intermittent intravenous therapies

Key Venous Research Priorities

Utilization of a large registry or data base to study outcome data on the following:
- Venclose™ System or Maven™ Catheter
- Venovo™ Venous Stent System

Key Peripheral Artery Disease Research Priorities

Utilization of a large registry or data base to study outcome data on the following:
- Long term outcomes of the Lutonix™ DCB Catheter in peripheral arteries
- Rotarex™ Rotational Excisional Atherectomy System