Democratising genomic applications in clinical microbiology research with nanopore sequencing technology

Session Overview:

Genomics is playing a pivotal role for applications in clinical microbiology and infectious disease, including whole-genome sequencing of bacteria and fungi from isolates, and detection of pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. However, long turnaround times, high economic costs, large device footprints, and inherent technical limitations associated with legacy sequencing platforms have hindered widespread adoption for many of these applications. Oxford Nanopore Technologies overcomes these limitations by providing accessible, cost-effective devices that generate accurate sequencing reads of any length, from short to ultra-long, and enable rapid turnaround times from receipt of sample to experimental answer/analysis/reporting of findings/conclusions. In this session, leading clinician researchers and scientists in this field will describe the implementation of nanopore sequencing for low-cost, flexible-throughput viral and isolate sequencing, that produces reference-quality microbial genome assemblies for applications such as outbreak surveillance, rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and drug resistance and rapid metagenomic detection and characterisation of lower respiratory tract infection pathogens.

Speakers:

Session chair: Justin O'Grady, Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Speaker 1: Alban Ramette,  Institute of Infectious Diseases, University of Bern
Speaker 2: Rafi Ahmad, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences; The Arctic University of Norway
Speaker 3: Heba Mostafa, John Hopkins School of Medicine
Speaker 4: Gaia Nebbia, Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital NHS Trust