THE SCIENCE

The concepts employed in the eGenomics System are based on recognized infection control principles. A 2001 CDC report states that "molecular subtyping has become an essential component of epidemiologic investigations of infectious disease". However the report continues that "because each laboratory uses its own protocols for molecular typing and designations of patterns, the results can not be compared with those of another laboratory even if both laboratories have used essentially the same methods. The lack of comparability has greatly diminished the power of molecular subtyping methods."

The use of DNA sequencing produces discrete data that is easily comparable and thus eliminates this serious problem.

To date, distinguishing among individual strains of bacteria has remained a challenge because differences among strains are minor and existing laboratory techniques result in outcomes that are not easily compared.

PFGE
Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE), which was first described in 1984, is the current standard for typing bacterial pathogens. The result of a PFGE test results is a photographic image of distinct pattern of bands. Strains are considered identical or related if their resulting photographs look similar. However, comparison of binary images is not a trivial task, even with a computer. Also, determining strain relatedness from PFGE results is a subjective science at best.

DNA Sequencing
eGenomics has developed a method to identify regions of DNA that "fingerprint" infectious pathogens.