TIGER platform for high throughput surveillance and strain typing of emerging respiratory pathogens: SARS, avian flu, adenovirus, and new threats

ANYL 264

Steven A. Hofstadler, shofstadler@isisph.com, David J. Ecker, decker@isisph.com, Lawrence B. Blyn, Mark Eshoo, Jared Drader, jdrader@isisph.com, Ray Ranken, and Ranga Sampath, rsampath@isisph.com. Ibis Therapeutics, A Division of Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, 2292 Faraday Avenue, Carlsbad, CA 92008
We describe a high throughput method to detect and strain-type established and newly emerging respiratory pathogens (viral and bacterial) using conserved genetic markers. The approach is based on amplification of conserved regions of a viral or bacterial genome that flank variable or highly mutable regions. These genetic markers are amplified with broad range PCR primers followed by high throughput, high performance mass spectrometric analysis. Base compositions (i.e. the number of A's, G's, C's, and T's in an amplicon) from multiple primer pairs are used to rapidly determine the species and strain of the infective agent. The approach also lends itself to detecting mutations consistent with drug resistance and is capable of examining mixtures resulting from co-infections or environmental backgrounds. Examples will be shown in which this approach (TIGER: Triangulation Identification for Genetic Evaluation of Risk) was applied to characterize thousands of samples (environmental and clinical) containing SARS, Adenovirus, or Influenza.
 

Disease Diagnostics
8:30 AM-10:55 AM, Monday, 27 March 2006 Georgia World Congress Center -- B214, Oral

Division of Analytical Chemistry

The 231st ACS National Meeting, Atlanta, GA, March 26-30, 2006