Pathogenica Inc. announced this week it has entered into an agreement with Illumina, whereby the parties will co-market in the Asia Pacific region a new version of Pathogenica’s HAI BioDetection kit compatible with Illumina’s MiSeq benchtop sequencing system. The combined solution aims to enable users to identify an expanded panel of bacteria and drug resistance genes present within clinical specimens and mixed cultures or isolates.
The new version of the HAI BioDetection kit, currently under development, will be a research use only test that enables identification and sub-typing of bacterial species responsible for over 95 percent of hospital acquired infections. The solution provides sequence-level resolution with automated analysis software in a multiplexed assay that makes hospital-wide surveillance practical. Species identified by the new kit will include (but not be limited to): A. baumannii, C. difficile, E. coli, K. pneumonia, P. aeruginosa, and S. aureus.
“We are excited to partner with Illumina to bring next-generation sequencing-based surveillance to labs in Asia,” said Yemi Adesokan, CEO of Pathogenica. “The introduction of an Illumina-compatible version of our kit emphasizes the platform-agnostic flexibility of our technology, and allows us to reach new users in the large number of clinical-facing facilities keen to use Illumina’s sequencing technology.”
Pathogenica’s BioDetection solution has the capability to bypass the requirement of bacterial isolation and culture, drastically expediting workflow, and can process 24-48 samples simultaneously per sequencing run.
Source: Pathogenica Inc.