Category: pathogen
Progress in Pathogen Genomics as a Prototype for Precision Public Health
Rapid advances in pathogen genomics have ushered in a new era of “precision public health.” Next-generation sequencing is already enabling more effective investigations of outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, better-targeted tuberculosis control, and more timely and granular influenza surveillance to inform the selection of vaccine strains. In a recent paper in the New England Journal of Read More >
Posted on byPublic Health Genomics 2015: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
In 2015, the United States launched the precision medicine initiative that includes a cancer component and a national cohort research study of one million or more people. While much of this initiative will take years to develop outputs for use in health care, a public health perspective is crucial to ensure the initiative’s success in Read More >
Posted on byOutsmarting Antimicrobial-Resistant Pathogens
The evolution of antibiotic resistance in bacteria is occurring at an alarming rate and is outpacing the development of new countermeasures. —White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, September 18, 2014 In the contest between humans and pathogens, each faction has an evolutionary advantage: we have the brains to plot antimicrobial strategies but they Read More >
Posted on byGenomes at CDC: Man, Mouse, and Microbe—it’s a Genomic World
The proposed Advanced Molecular Detection initiative aims to help CDC apply molecular sequencing and bioinformatics techniques to solving outbreaks and controlling infectious diseases. This approach has been called “genomic epidemiology”—using pathogen genome sequences to detect emerging diseases, assess their potential virulence and resistance to antibiotics, and monitor their spread in populations. The focus is on Read More >
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