ARTICLE SUMMARY:
IDbyDNA is "democratizing" the emerging field of metagenomics by marrying genomic sequencing with state-of-the-art computational sciences to bring rapid, cost-effective precision medicine to infectious disease testing. An example of its potential: rapid characterization of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
COVID-19 testing has cast an unusual bright spotlight on the obscure world of infectious disease diagnostics, but below the hoopla the broader field of microbiology is undergoing a transformation. Next-generation sequencing, with its enormous power to decipher the intricacies of the microbial genome, is making headway, much the way that technology has already dramatically reshaped oncology, prenatal care, and rare diseases.
