ID Genomics Inc. services

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the ability of bacteria to stop an antimicrobial (antibiotics) from working against it. As a result, standard treatments become ineffective, infections persist and may spread to others.

DNA analysis of the 16S ribosomal gene DNA is a time tested method to identify the taxonomic identity of unknown microbes, often to the species level. You send us live or inactive bacteria or their isolated DNA and we extract, amplify, and sequence the 16S rRNA gene variable region. Sequence information is analyzed and compared to a reference library of microbial sequences to determine the nearest matching neighbors in the library. Phylogenetic and distance analysis of each microbe presents the most likely genus or species taxonomy and a graphical representation of the proximity to nearest reference neighbors.

Metagenomics is a next-generation sequencing (NGS) based method. Unlike PCR-based approaches, it is a culture-free method that enables genetic analysis of an entire microbial communities’ genomes in a complex sample. This creates a biodiversity profile that can be further associated with functional composition analysis of known and unknown organism lineages (ie, genera or taxa). Metagenomic studies are commonly performed by analyzing the prokaryotic 16S ribosomal RNA gene (16S rRNA), which is approximately 1,500 bp long and contains nine variable regions interspersed between conserved regions. Variable regions of 16S rRNA are frequently used in phylogenetic classifications such as genus or species in diverse microbial populations. Our service is based on sequencing the variable V3, V4 and V5 regions of the 16S rRNA gene.