USING GENOMICS TO IDENTIFY ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANT GONORRHOEA

Teresa Street, a senior postdoctoral scientist at the Modernising Medical Microbiology (MMM) research group at the University of Oxford, has developed a new diagnostic test called Metagenomic Sequencing (mNGS) to detect gonorrhoea in patient samples. Gonorrhoea, a common sexually transmitted infection, is typically treated with a combination of two antibiotics. However, resistance to these antibiotics has led to a global increase in cases. To tackle this problem, early detection and faster treatment are needed. mNGS uses next-generation sequencing technologies to identify DNA from bacteria directly from patient samples, without needing to grow the bacteria in a laboratory. The technique of Target Enrichment captures gonorrhoea DNA in extracts before sequencing, enabling the detection of AMR determinants in chromosomal genes that confer resistance. The study also tested the feasibility of multiplexing to improve efficiency and reduce costs associated with enrichment and sequencing.