Validation, Implementation, and Clinical Utility of Whole Genome Sequence-Based Bacterial Identification in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory

The application of next-generation sequencing (NGS) extends from microbial identification to epidemiological insight and antimicrobial resistance prediction. Despite this potential, the roadblock for clinical labs lies in implementation and validation of such complex technology and data analysis. Here, we describe a validation study of using whole-genome sequencing (WGS) for pan-bacterial identification (ID) in a clinical laboratory setting, and discuss the clinical relevance. A diverse set of 125 bacterial isolates, including a subset of isolates without genus (25) and/or species (10) IDs, were analyzed by de novo assembly and reference genome mapping.

Source: Journal of Molecular Diagnostics - August 9, 2021 Category: Pathology Authors: Travis K. Price, Susan Realegeno, Ruel Mirasol, Allison Tsan, Sukantha Chandrasekaran, Omai B. Garner, Shangxin Yang Tags: Regular Article Source Type: research