Techcyte Named 2025 Infectious Disease Testing Solution of the Year by BioTech Breakthrough Awards

Techcyte has been named 2025 Infectious Disease Testing Solution of the Year by the BioTech Breakthrough Awards, a leading recognition platform for innovation in life sciences and biotechnology.

The award recognized Techcyte’s Fusion Bacteriology Suite: Gram Stain Solution, an AI-powered research use only (RUO) platform designed to modernize Gram stain analysis, one of the most widely performed infectious disease tests. Historically dependent on subjective manual microscopy, Gram stain workflows have only changed a little over the past several decades.

Co-developed, validated, and implemented at Mayo Clinic, the Fusion platform applies digital pathology and AI to support Gram stain workflows by automatically identifying bacteria, yeast, and white blood cells, calculating their presence and predominance, flagging sample rejection criteria, and generating a complete digital image archive for every case.

In an internal evaluation of 530 Gram-stained smears conducted at a U.S. reference laboratory, AI-assisted review showed strong correlation with manual microscopy, with intra- and inter-observer reproducibility exceeding 95%.¹ The evaluation also highlighted how a digitized, AI-assisted workflow has the potential to support consistent, traceable, and standardized review within laboratory operations.

“This recognition underscores our continued focus on advancing digital pathology and AI to support infectious disease testing in laboratory environments,” said Ben Cahoon, CEO of Techcyte. “As testing volumes grow and staffing challenges persist, labs are increasingly looking for digital tools that are designed to integrate into existing workflows while supporting consistency and scalability.”

The BioTech Breakthrough Awards program evaluates thousands of organizations worldwide—from emerging startups to Fortune 500 companies—through a rigorous research and analysis process, recognizing technologies that demonstrate meaningful innovation and technical excellence across the life sciences.

Techcyte’s digital pathology platform is used globally across research, veterinary, environmental, and food safety settings, supporting disciplines including bacteriology, parasitology, cytology, histology, and hematology.

1. Pathology Visions 2024 Overview. (2025). Journal of Pathology Informatics, 16, 100419.
   https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S215335392500001X#s0205