Using genomics to inform epidemiology

Using genomics to inform epidemiology

Using genomics to inform epidemiology (#63)

Grant Hill-Cawthorne ¹

Marie Bashir Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Since 2004 technological advances have enabled us to sequence more nucleic acid and generate more data in a shorter amount of time. Decreases in cost per nucleotide sequenced, the initial price of sequencing machines and the complexity of library construction means that whole genome sequencing (WGS) is available in many research labs and an increasing number of public health microbiology labs. I will examine the use of WGS in public health microbiology, particularly the possibility of investigating organisms without culture, the interrogation of genomes where PCR may be unavailable, outbreak investigation, tracking resistance mutations and novel pathogen discovery.

#2015ASM

Authors contributing to this presentation.

Hill-Cawthorne, G

Grant is a medical microbiologist and lecturer in communicable disease epidemiology at the Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity and School of Public Health, University of Sydney. After completing medicine and medical training at the University of Cambridge he went to Saudi Arabia where he set up a laboratory specialising in pathogen genomics. His PhD was in the use of genomics for public health microbiology and as part of this he led a large worldwide study on TB genomics as well as studies on total drug resistant TB in South Africa. His ongoing research is on the evolution of extensive drug resistance in South Africa, Mongolia and Papua New Guinea. He also has a number of other research programmes on MRSA, enteric pathogens and viral encephalitis.

Using genomics to inform epidemiology (#63)

Add notes

Hill-Cawthorne, G

Login