Genome Institute of Singapore And Roche NimbleGen, Inc: Tracking the Evolutionary Path of the novel H1N1 Influenza A

MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The recent outbreak of the flu virus, the new strain of Influenza A (nH1N1), has rapidly spread around the world. Many experts are concerned for the evolutionary track of this new strain and whether it will mutate or re-assort with other influenza strains to potentially produce a more deadly strain, as the world experienced with the 1918 strain. To identify these mutations and re-assortments, a team at the Genome Institute of Singapore has developed a novel “generic” Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) approach that can amplify the full genome of any influenza A virus; followed by NimbleGen microarray-based hybridization sequencing, that allows a rapid turn around for entire genomes (as many as 36 a day with one chip reader device) in about 24 hours.

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