Today, at the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Annual Meeting researchers at The University of Maryland Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) and OpGen, Inc., a whole genome DNA analysis company, announced that they will collaborate to develop a database of high quality, finished, annotated microbial sequences. IGS will provide clinically characterized microbial samples and sequencing data from microbial genomics studies, including from the National Institutes of Health Human Microbiome Project (HMP) and the National Institutes of Health Genomic Sequencing Center for Infectious Diseases (GSCID) research. OpGen will provide optical maps and sequence finishing technology.