|
a) |
Enrichment by culture
This has been in use for
over half a century for
a limited number of
organisms, but is being slowly replaced
by nucleic acid
amplification technologies
such as PCR |
|
b) |
Organism
Identification
Phenotypic expression
methods (colony
characteristics, organism
staining reactions/shape/size,
biochemical reactions etc.)
have distinct limitations.
Newer identification methods
such as ELISA and DNA probes
are being used to only a limited
degree as they too have
practical drawbacks. |
All these methods are slower and less
accurate than identification by DNA sequencing. The well known superiority of DNA
sequencing for pathogen identification has not been previously
commercialized due to the high cumulative cost of performing a
separate test for each of the pathogens that could be the cause of a
particular infection. MultiGEN technology finally allows the
cost-effective use of DNA sequencing to screen for and conclusively
identify one or multiple pathogens, and all in the same test on
existing instrumentation.
From a laboratory perspective MultiGEN technology possesses a number
of distinct advantages:
| |
• |
Highest
possible accuracy of DNA
sequencing |
| |
• |
Low
detection limits |
| |
• |
Built in
features that minimize false
negatives and false
positives |
| |
• |
Test panels
that detect all the
important pathogens causing
common infectious syndromes |
| |
• |
Results
available the same working
day |
| |
• |
Less cost
than the cumulative cost of
present methods |
| |
• |
Off-the-shelf
instrumentation |
| |
• |
Easy to
apply test protocols |
| |
• |
High
throughput capacity |
| |
• |
Detection
of both dead and alive
pathogens, making sample
quality less significant |
| |
• |
Use in
tracking genetic drift/shift
for molecular epidemiologic
studies e.g. tracking ‘Super
Bugs’ within an institution |
