Prevention
Developing and improving techniques for the detection of viral and bacterial pathogens.
The Maurice Wilkins Centre’s extensive network of researchers and international collaborators will develop novel strategies to combat infectious diseases through detection of viral and bacterial pathogens through molecular diagnostics.
Real time pathogen genomics for diagnostics and surveillance in the Pacific Islands.
Next generation sequencing (NGS) is a powerful tool for pathogen genomics that has the potential to transform culture independent diagnostics and to enable rapid detection of transmission networks and outbreaks. Traditionally, NGS has required expensive equipment and bioinformatics expertise that was only available in specialist sequencing facilities; it has been beyond the reach of diagnostic laboratories, hampering the development of real time pathogen genomics.
MWC researchers have demonstrated the utility of pathogen genomics for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Myanmar, and the identification of a previously unrecognised outbreak of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii in the Pacific Islands. With the decrease in cost of equipment and the development of analysis pipelines, MWC researchers are using NGS to develop real time pathogen genomics solutions for diagnostic and surveillance purposes in the Pacific Islands.