New technology detects any virus posing a threat to humans



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An informatics method that designs molecular baits for all strains of viruses known to infect humans has been developed by Harvard and the Broad Institute of MIT, published in Nature Biotechnology.

The new aggregation technology compact objectives for complete hybridization could help a genomic sequencing center around the world to monitor the disease more economically and effectively to control and manage outbreaks. CATCH allows researchers to design probes to capture the genetic material of any combination of microbes, including viral strains, that infect humans.

After entering the downloaded data into the GenBank Sequence Database of the National Biotechnology Information Human Virus Genomes, CATCH will be able to determine optimal sets of probes for recovering genetic material. The sequences are then sent to companies that synthesize research probes, which can be used to isolate the desired microbial DNA to sequence, enriching clinical samples to detect microbes of interest.

The probes were developed using this technique, which allowed the team to discover that the Zika virus had spread to several geographical regions months before the scientist could detect it. . CATCH technology could improve genomic surveillance and inform future attempts to control outbreaks; and can be a tool for investigating undiagnosed fevers suspected to be caused by a virus. The software has been made public on GitHub.

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