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NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Thermo Fisher Scientific said today it has developed software that enables public health laboratories to directly access the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s MicrobeNet reference lab database.

Developed through a partnership with the Special Bacteriology Reference Laboratory at the CDC, Thermo Fisher’s MicrobeBridge software platform seamlessly connects Sanger sequencing results to the MicrobeNet online virtual reference lab database. As a result, researchers will be able to more quickly identify microbial pathogens that may underlie global outbreaks without having to search through multiple databases, Thermo Fisher said.

MicroBridge integrates with all Applied Biosystems capillary electrophoresis instruments. It automates the assembly and quality control of raw Sanger sequencing data into a searchable format in the MicrobeNet database, making it easier to match and identify specimens. Thermo Fisher said it plans to develop compatible software for its next-generation sequencing and mass spectrometry platforms.

“Expanding MicrobeNet will allow public health laboratories anywhere in the world to run sequence-based, phenotypic, or eventually other tests and match results against a highly curated database comprised of our unique collection of pathogens,” John McQuiston, a team leader for Special Bacteriology Reference Laboratory, said in a statement. “With the addition of MicrobeBridge, researchers and public health laboratories will now be able to easily acquire information on thousands of organisms curated by the pathogen subject matter experts at CDC.”