Weizhi Chen from Simcere Diagnostics presented a lightning talk at the Nanopore Community Meeting 2017 titled “Nanopore metagenomics sequencing for identification of both culture-positive and culture-negative pathogens.”Chen explained how they are using MinION and sequencing for infectious disease diagnostics. These labs are associated with labs in China. The first case report Chen shared was the use of Nanopore sequencing for culture-negative endocarditis-causing pathogens. With good coverage, identification was possible. The second case report Chen described was the identification of the dengue virus. The virus was identified despite significant host reads (97%). Co-infection and drug-resistant strains were identified with this method. Simcere uses long-read sequencing for several diagnostic applications, including complex communities, host-contaminated samples, and difficult-to-culture organisms.
