Wallingford, Conn.-based Shoreline Biome and Farmington, Conn.-based The Jackson Laboratory are partnering to analyze the entire collective genome of the human gut to better understand the nature of pathogenic bacteria, like Clostridium difficile, that cause thousands of hospital-acquired infections around the world.
"Pathogens such as C. difficile are common in hospitals and long-term care facilities, posing a major health threat," George Weinstock, PhD, a professor with The Jackson Laboratory, said in a statement. "[W]e are developing new techniques to identify these pathogens, as well as to study the wide-ranging health effects of the multitudes of microorganisms that inhabit each of us."
The project will use next-generation DNA sequencing to get a fuller picture of the microbiome and ultimately develop techniques for diagnosing and treating infectious disease, according to the researchers.