Dr. Mostafa Ghanem, the director of Molecular epidemiology laboratory who joined the faculty of the Veterinary Medicine Department last September has announced that his laboratory has acquired a whole-genome sequencer, the new Miseq system is the most popular sequencing platforms of Illumina, Inc., provides diverse capabilities and supports a broad range of applications. The costs of this sequencer is about $100,000, is a high-throughput sequencer that could performs up to 25 million reads per run.
Dr. Ghanem said,” it can deliver whole-genome sequencing of bacteria and viruses and can identify multiple agents or novel pathogens like SARS-COV-2 in diverse sample types”. The use of next generation sequencing became a core part of many biomedical research applications especially in fighting infectious diseases of human and animals. In addition, it is powerful tool to help poultry and livestock industry in Maryland to investigate chronic disease problems and understand their epidemiology and develop better control plans. Moreover, it boosters our department’s cooperation with state and federal agencies to quickly identify zoonotic outbreaks associated with food, feed, animals and people.”
The combination of Dr. Ghanem’s expertise in molecular epidemiology and the sequencer’s processing power opens a world of possibility for veterinarians, public health officials, and biomedical researchers in Maryland, and beyond who can now incorporate genomic findings into their work rapidly and inexpensively.
Dr. Ghanem is planning to allow the use of his sequencer to other researchers on campus and to support other researchers working on COVID-19 by providing sequencing services. In addition, though an agreement with Maryland Department of Agriculture, the sequencing services will be expanded to support the needs of poultry industry for such critical and advanced services. This will enable veterinarians and diagnosticians to screen more samples and detect pathogens involved in diseases, in a much more robust approach than previous technologies, such as q/RT-PCR. Stay tuned.
