Title: One Test PathoGenome: A Target Hybridization-Based Next-Generation Sequencing Assay to Tackle Undiagnosed Infections

Abstract:

Every year, approximately 800,000 critically ill patients are hospitals in the USA with undiagnosed infections. The only option is to treat these patients with broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy and hope for the best outcome. The inability to obtain specific actionable information in a clinically relevant time-frame, combined with ineffective treatment, contributes to increased disease burden, mortality, hospitalizations, and drug resistance. The consequence is direct hospitalization costs of more than $27 billion, with another $26 billion lost due to antimicrobial resistance. What is urgently needed is precise and comprehensive targeted pathogen identification, including the capacity to detect drug-resistant mutations, for routine diagnosis to support effective treatment and control measures.
Fusion Genomics Corp.’s mission is to address this need and enable precision medicine for infectious diseases by developing a pan-pathogen test - the ONETest™ PathoGenome - that identifies all human pathogens (~1,400) and provides the genomic information necessary to guide treatment, including drug resistance and human genetic susceptibility markers in a timely fashion. The assay uses next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) along with Fusion’s novel DNA hybridization technology, QuantumProbes, to enrich bacterial/viral/fungal genomes prior to sequencing. The assay will be functionally equivalent, yet clinically superior, to whole metagenome sequencing, but at 1/10th the cost, 1/3rd the time, and several times the sensitivity.

Learning Objectives: 

1. learn how NGS will impact undiagnosed infections  
2. learn about the advantages of using targeted sequencing versus whole metagenome sequencing

Biography:

Dr Qadir's training is in genetics and molecular biology. Dr Qadir has over 17 years of research experience. The last ten were at the British Columbia Cancer Agency where he worked with world-renowned experts in genomics and drug development. Dr Qadir is the co-inventor of the CHILDSeq-Sarcoma assay and CHILDDecode (part of FUSIONCloud™). Dr Qadir oversees all the scientific aspects of research and development efforts at FUSION GENOMICS and also serves as the interface for all collaborators.