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ARKAS

Read the infection, not the culture.

A diagnostic in development, designed to read bacteria directly from a specimen: no culture step, no reagents, no sample preparation.

The problem

The antibiotic is chosen before the laboratory can say what the infection is.

A clinician decides in minutes. Culture, the standard of care, takes 18 to 48 hours, because the organism has to grow before it can be measured.

The faster tests still need reagents, cartridges or an amplification step, or they answer quickly and miss infections at low pathogen loads.

ARKAS is being designed to close that gap: to read a pathogen’s spectral fingerprint straight from the specimen, without growing it first.

01 · The wait, today

A clinician decides in minutes. The lab answers in hours.

the consultation windowafter the decision is made
  • Culture and susceptibility testing18–48 hours
  • Mass spectrometry identificationAbout 15 minutes, after culture
  • Cartridge molecular testing45–90 minutes
  • CRISPR-based detection30–60 minutes
  • Isothermal amplification20–40 minutes
  • Rapid antigen / lateral flow5–15 minutes
  • ARKAStarget, in development
1 min10 min24 h48 h
Time to result, logarithmic scale. Bars show the indicative range for each technology class.
Time to answer and remaining requirements for each laboratory technology class
What the laboratory runsTime to answerWhat it still requires
Culture and susceptibility testingCurrent standard of care18–48 hoursThe organism must grow first
Mass spectrometry identificationAbout 15 minutes, after cultureA grown colony before it can run
Cartridge molecular testing45–90 minutesPre-loaded reagent cartridge
CRISPR-based detection30–60 minutesAn upstream amplification step
Isothermal amplification20–40 minutesReagents and sample preparation
Rapid antigen / lateral flow5–15 minutesMisses a substantial share of true positives at low pathogen loads

Every row above either takes longer than the consultation, or trades away the accuracy needed to choose an antibiotic. The decision gets made in the gap.

Source: CDPH, Ultrafast Diagnostics Landscape 2026. Ranges are indicative across products within each technology class and vary by target organism.

02 · What ARKAS is built to remove

Not faster culture. No culture.

  • Culture step

    Conventional pathway: Required

    ARKAS:None: read directly from the specimen

  • Reagents

    Conventional pathway: Required

    ARKAS:None

  • Consumables and cold chain

    Conventional pathway: Required

    ARKAS:None

  • Sample preparation

    Conventional pathway: Required

    ARKAS:None

  • Organisms per run

    Conventional pathway: One target, or a fixed panel

    ARKAS:Full spectral fingerprint

ARKAS is at technology readiness level 2 and in pre-clinical development. The right-hand column describes the system’s intended design, not measured performance. No clinical performance data has yet been generated.

03 · Where the technology sits

The fast, infrastructure-free corner is empty.

Slow on the left, fast on the right. Heavy on reagents, consumables, cold chain and sample preparation at the bottom; none of them at the top.

NoneInfrastructure burdenHigh
  8. ARKAS
48 hoursTime to result1 minute
  1. 1.Culture and susceptibility testing
  2. 2.Mass spectrometry identification
  3. 3.Cartridge molecular testing
  4. 4.CRISPR-based detection
  5. 5.Isothermal amplification
  6. 6.Other label-free spectroscopic approaches
  7. 7.Rapid antigen / lateral flow

ARKAS target position, in the shaded corner: fast and infrastructure-free

Indicative positioning of technology classes. ARKAS position is a design target, not measured performance.

05 · The journey

What is done, and what is planned.

Solid points are achieved. Outlined points are targets.

  1. Mar 2026

    CDPH incorporated

    (achieved)

  2. Aug 2026

    Provisional patent filed, six invention areas

    (achieved)

  3. 2026

    First indication selected, in consultation with MedTech Mitra (ICMR–CDSCO, NITI Aayog)

    (achieved)

  4. 2026

    Photonics partnership and incubation secured

    (achieved)

  5. 2026

    Startup Denmark approval, European entity in formation

    (achieved)

  6. We are here

  7. 2027Target

    Complete specification and international filing; first experimental data

    (planned)

  8. 2028Target

    Validated prototype; clinical performance studies open

    (planned)

  9. 2029–2030Target

    European conformity assessment; CE marking; first deployments

    (planned)

06 · Two development tracks

A laboratory instrument first. A field device later.

Both tracks start from today. All durations are estimates.

Today

Desktop prototype

Estimated 18–24 months from the start of incubation

  1. Spectral performance validation
  2. Clinical validation

Handheld point-of-care deviceObjective

Estimated 36–48 months. A later-phase objective, not a product.

Months from the start of incubation, estimated. The handheld configuration is a later-phase objective, not a current or imminent product.

Further reading

Ultrafast Diagnostics Landscape 2026

Technologies delivering results in under 10 minutes: a technology landscape for clinical and donor audiences, from India and global perspectives.

Download the report

PDF, 24 pages, 367 KB

Work with us.

Write to info@cdph.in

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