A team of collaborating scientists at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston, the Broad Institute in Boston, Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, and the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion (OAHPP) have sequenced almost 100 full genomes from three successive epidemics of flesh-eating bacteria. This has resulted in the first precise explanation of the biological events contributing to deadly epidemics of severe infection. This method can be used to track and help prevent devastating epidemics in the future.
Results of this research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, appear in a study published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"The extensive full-genome data provide us with new clues about the bacteria's ability to take advantage of vulnerabilities in the person who has contracted the bacteria," said Dr. James M. Musser, co-director of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute and the senior, corresponding author of the study. "With this type of unique molecular portrait of the bacterial pathogen, we can more effectively develop drugs to prevent the spread of epidemics and construct novel diagnostic and treatment strategies."