Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on November 13, 2019 their report Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2019, showing that antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi cause more than 2.8 million infections and 35,000 deaths in the United States each year. This is striking, indicating that on average, someone in the US gets an antibiotic-resistant infection every 11 seconds, and that every 15 minutes someone dies from one. Check out the coverage on Twitter by following #CDCARThreats.
Nevertheless, data from the new report show progress in fighting these infections. Since 2013, prevention efforts have reduced deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections by 18% overall and by nearly 30% in hospitals. Rapid detection and prevention strategies in communities have helped protect people from two community-associated germs: vaccines have helped reduce infections from Streptococcus pneumoniae in many at-risk groups, and the cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) in the United States remain stable due to effective TB control strategies.
However, CDC is concerned about antibiotic-resistant infections that are on the rise including:
This new data show that continued vigilance is needed to maintain the progress seen thus far. Further preventing infections and stopping the spread of germs will save more lives.
QIAGEN offers tools and solutions to support public health epidemiology, clinical microbiology research and basic microbial genomics research. QIAGEN CLC Microbial Genomics Module offers unique and valuable features and functionalities to help advance research of microbial infections and their prevention. These capabilities include:
Learn more about the QIAGEN CLC Microbial Genomics Module and check out the details of how this tool can support you in the fight against emerging antimicrobial resistant (AMR) pathogens.
QIAGEN is committed to supporting advanced research into the underlying drivers of antimicrobial resistance. Earlier in 2019, as a statement of our commitment, we were the first bioinformatics company to join the joint United Nations - CDC Global AMR Challenge. Read more about our commitment and the new QMI-AR database here.
References:
CDC (2019). Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States, 2019. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC.
We're excited to be a part of the 12th annual SFAF in Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 16-18. The three-day conference covers NGS and its applications and in particular how these are playing a significant role in the genomics field.
We’re delighted to invite you to our traditional pre-conference workshop at this year’s annual “Sequencing, Finishing and Analysis in the Future Meeting” (SFAF) 2017. The four-hour workshop offers hands-on training in the QIAGEN CLC Genomics ProSuite. Based on CLC Genomics Workbench, this amazing software bundle provides tools and workflows optimized for metagenomics, microbiome profiling, pathogen typing and genome-based outbreak investigations. The training includes a complimentary trial software license and covers many features, from how to analyze metagenomic data to ways of detecting pathogens in a metagenomic sample.
Topic: Microbial genomics and metagenomics software training (includes complementary trial license)
Date/time: Monday, May 15, 4.00 p.m. – 8.00 p.m. MDT
Location: Santa Fe Room, La Fonda Hotel
Speaker: Dr. Arne Materna, Director of Microbial Solutions, QIAGEN
We look forward to meeting you at SFAF in Santa Fe.
We recently attended the 11th annual Sequencing, Finishing and Analysis in the Future (SFAF) meeting, hosted by Los Alamos National Laboratory and held in Santa Fe, NM, also known as “The City Different.” With an emphasis on genome sequencing, assembly, and applications of NGS, it was an action-packed three days of meetings, demos, poster presentations, and networking.
On the afternoon before SFAF started, QIAGEN Bioinformatics hosted a successful workshop for 30 attendees, which provided hands-on training on our Microbial Genomics Pro Suite. This user-friendly, scalable solution includes CLC Genomics Workbench and a series of plugins, enabling microbiologists to fully optimize the microbial genomics and metagenomics analytical workflow. Our session included an introduction to the capabilities of the solution, including metagenomics workflows, pathogen typing, and outbreak analysis. Resources for this training are available on our website and include an explanatory video, entitled “Introduction to Metadata Handling for CLC Microbial Genomics Module.”
SFAF 2016 was a wonderful event, bringing us the chance to strengthen existing relationships and meet researchers who are using our solutions on fascinating projects. It also brought us the opportunity to discuss benchmarks for our microbial genomics solution. We are looking forward to following up with our new contacts — some of whose work we hope to feature on this blog and share with you in the not-too-distant future.
Learn More about our Microbial Genomics Solution
We recently had a fantastic week in Boston, where top educational institutions meet innovative life sciences. The Boston Convention Center, located in the buzzing Seaport District, was host to the ASM Microbe 2016.
The agenda was packed with symposia, workshops, and poster sessions, there were blue skies outside the convention center, and hundreds of conference attendees visited our booth to discuss microbiology from sample to insight. We were delighted to see strong interest in our bioinformatics solutions - particularly how CLC Genomics Workbench, our new QIAGEN CLC Genomics ProSuite, and Ingenuity Pathway Analysis help turn data into insights.
This year we highlighted how our solutions are being used to investigate pathogen genomes and outbreaks, to profile microbiomes, and to study host response to infection. Our new pipeline for functional metagenomics drew significant interest, due in part to Dr. Rita R. Colwell's fascinating presentation on the importance of rapid taxonomic and functional analysis of microbiome data in the case of enteric infections. You can watch the presentation below.
To give QIAGEN CLC Genomics ProSuite a try, download your trial today!
Learn More about our Microbial Genomics Solution
Clinical Metagenomics for Rapid Detection of Enteric Pathogens and Characterization of the Intestinal Microbiome in Health and Disease
Presented by Rita R. Colwell
