Radhakrishna Tirumalai from Meck presented at the ONT Biopharma Day in Boston. The session, “Microbial identification in biopharma, ” focused on microbial identification methods in the biopharma industry. Tirumalai explained that analytical techniques can be appropriate in specific scenarios. For example, a microbial identification system may require precise identification at the genus or even strain level. Regulations also influence the decision on the methods used. Tirumalai spoke about phenotypic methods and “more advanced” DNA-based methods. Genotypic methods are considered more advanced and are typically more expensive. Tirumalai noted that they are frequently outsourced. Oxford Nanopore Technologies and others have made sequencing more accessible. Strain typing tests need to be validated. Polyphasic identification uses many levels of phenotypic and genotypic data. Some limitations are that they require pure cultures and may not allow long reads. Tirumalai noted that current practices use a combination of genotypic and phenotypic methods. Ultra-long fragments of DNA/RNA with nanopore sequencing will be helpful for pathogen investigation.
