Rapid-response mobile laboratory for disease elimination, outbreak investigation, and pathogen X | LC 25

Biography

Dr Arianna Ceruti graduated in veterinary medicine and is currently a postdoc at the Institute of Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health (Leipzig University, Germany). She has been involved in the Suitcase lab project since 2020 and has developed a field-deployable sequencing diagnostic tool to identify mosquito specimens, pathogens, and host feeding patterns in the field. She has experience in molecular diagnostics, infectious diseases, and One Health approaches using Oxford Nanopore sequencing.

Abstract

Molecular amplification assays traditionally rely on prior knowledge of pathogen genome sequences. This limitation can be overcome through next-generation sequencing, which enables identification of outbreak-causing pathogens by sequencing all nucleic acids present in a sample extract. The resulting sequencing data can identify both novel pathogens and new variants of known agents. The portable Oxford Nanopore Technologies device enables sequencing in remote areas, eliminating sample deterioration issues associated with long-distance transportation and facilitating unbiased data acquisition. As Johann Wolfgang von Goethe observed, ‘We only see what we know’; however, sequencing has enabled us to see what was previously unknown through the application of diverse analytical methods to sequence datasets. In my presentation, I will discuss the development of a mobile suitcase laboratory as a rapid response setup for Oxford Nanopore sequencing deployment in low-resource settings across India, Bangladesh, Sudan, Uganda, Egypt, and Senegal. This mobile setup was utilized for rapid pathogen identification from blood samples (septicemia) and fecal samples (diarrheal diseases). To address vector infectivity, we developed protocols for both pathogen identification and species identification of human or animal blood meals in mosquitoes. By combining a reverse purification extraction protocol with Oxford Nanopore sequencing and offline BLAST analysis, the entire procedure can be conducted in a mobile suitcase laboratory in under 150 minutes.