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VITEK refers to a series of automated microbiology analyzers for microbial identification (ID) and antibiotic sensitivity testing (AST).

History

Vitek was developed in the 1960s between NASA and the defense contractor McDonnell Douglas. For the Voyager program, McDonnell Douglas developed a Microbial Load Monitor (MLM) to detect bacterial contamination aboard the spacecraft.^[1]^[2] Under a subsequent NASA contract, McDonnell Douglas explored expanding the MLM to detecting and identifying bacterial infections among the crew of a human mission to Mars.^[3] The initial system was called the Microbial Load Monitor (MLM) and could detect nine common pathogens of Urinary tract infections (UTIs).^[3] In 1977, a new subsidiary was formed around the product, Vitek Systems, and the system was renamed the VITEK meaning "life technology", a portmanteau of Latin Viv, meaning life, and TEK being short for technology.^[3]^[4] In 1979, Vitek began selling the AutoMicrobic System (AMS) to hospital laboratories.^[2]

In 1989, Vitek Systems was sold to bioMérieux.^[3]^[5]^[6]

In March 2005, the Vitek 2 Compact received FDA clearance.^[7]

References

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

^ "Microbe Detector - NASA Spinoff". NASA.
^ ^a ^b Haggerty, James J. (August 1985). Spinoff 1985 (PDF). National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Commercial Programs Technology Utilization Division. pp. 76–77. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Olson, Wayne P. (31 January 1996). "Chapter 3. Substrate Utilization and the Automated Identification of Microbes". Automated Microbial Identification and Quantitation: Technologies for the 2000s. CRC Press. pp. 53–55. ISBN 978-0-935184-82-2. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
^ New Acronyms, Initialisms, & Abbreviations. Gale Research Company. 1980. p. 178. ISBN 978-0-8103-0501-4.
^ "Microbiology System - NASA Spinoff". NASA.
^ Haggerty, James J (1992). SpinOff 1992 (PDF). pp. 68–69. ISBN 0-16-038211-4. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
^ "Vitek 2 Compact has arrived!" (PDF). BioMérieux Connection. 2 (2). April 2005. Retrieved 10 July 2024.