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Are diagnostic and public health bacteriology ready to become branches of genomic medicine?
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Pallen, Mark J. and Loman, Nicholas J. (2011) Are diagnostic and public health bacteriology ready to become branches of genomic medicine? Genome Medicine, Volume 3 (Number 8). Article number 53. doi:10.1186/gm269 ISSN 1756-994X.
An open access version can be found in:
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/gm269
Abstract
Diagnostic medical bacteriology is a conservative discipline. When busy house officers scribble 'M, C & S' on a form, they are requesting two techniques - microscopy and culture of microorganisms - that date back to the late 17th and late 19th century, respectively. The third technique - antibiotic susceptibility testing - has changed little in a half a century. Relatively few front-line diagnostic bacteriology laboratories have embraced molecular methods; on my own campus, the hospital's medical microbiology department does not even possess a thermal cycler!
And yet in the research arena, genome sequencing has transformed almost every corner of the biomedical sciences, including the study of bacterial pathogens Furthermore, over the past 5 years, high-throughput (or 'next-generation') sequencing technologies have delivered a step change in our ability to sequence microbial genomes [1]. Since arriving in the market place, these technologies have experienced sustained technical improvement, which, twinned with lively competition between alternative platforms, has placed sequencing in a state of 'permanent revolution'.
At last, it seems that genomics has come up with a game-changer, a killer app, a disruptive technology that even those long wedded to the Gram stain and the agar plate can no longer ignore. Does this mean we are on the brink of a revolution in diagnostic and public health microbiology, in which high-throughput sequencing usurps the traditional 'M, C & S', or will the discipline's innate conservatism stand firm for decades to come?
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School > Biomedical Sciences > Microbiology & Infection Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Medicine > Warwick Medical School |
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Journal or Publication Title: | Genome Medicine | ||||
Publisher: | BioMed Central Ltd. | ||||
ISSN: | 1756-994X | ||||
Official Date: | August 2011 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Volume 3 | ||||
Number: | Number 8 | ||||
Page Range: | Article number 53 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1186/gm269 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||
Open Access Version: |
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