Illumina recently announced that it has launched a new whole genome sequencing service with BioMerieux that the two companies have developed together. It is aimed to improve the control of the iatrogenic infection and the monitor of the epidemiology.

This service is called as EpiSeq, which can help clarify the characteristics of the bacteria to help hospitals better understand bacterial virulence and drug resistance of related genetic markers. Meanwhile, it can also help clarify how bacteria infect, and will be very useful for the following epidemiological surveillance. The sequencing can help to establish the connection between different infection sources that can help to make sure the major events of strain spread. At the same time, you can also monitor it.

Jay Flatley, CEO of Illumina, said in a statement that We are very pleased to be able to provide the most cutting-edge research in collaboration with BioMérieux. On the basis of the whole genome, the new genome sequencing technology can help us make the characteristic analysis of the bacteria which can cause infectious diseases. However, with the growing of the antibiotic resistant bacteria, the current technology may not escort the public health timely. With this new service, the hospitals can separate the related bacterial strains, and transfer them to BioMerieux’s laboratory which is equipped with the MiSeq of Illumina, and the following sequencing datum will be stored into a secure cloud platform. These datum will be analyzed at the same time by BioMerieux's databases and software, and the end result will clarify the genomic characteristics of infectious pathogens and related genetic mutants. "