Scientific Publications by FDA Staff

J Clin Microbiol 2016 Aug;54(8):1946-8

The future of whole genome sequencing for public health and the clinic.

Allard MW

An American Society for Microbiology (ASM) conference titled "Conference on Rapid Next-Generation Sequencing and Bioinformatic Pipelines for Enhanced Molecular Epidemiological Investigation of Pathogens," provides a venue for discussing how technologies surrounding whole genome sequencing (WGS) are advancing microbiology. Several applications in microbial taxonomy, microbial forensics, and genomics for public health pathogen surveillance, were presented at the meeting and are reviewed. All of these studies document that WGS is revolutionizing applications in microbiology and that the impact of these technologies will be profound. ASM is providing support mechanisms to promote discussions of WGS techniques to foster applications and interpretations.