Scary headlines about the E.coli outbreak in Germany have faded, but scientists are still looking to learn about the DNA sequence of this new bacterial invader, and how it evolved to become deadly. Super-cheap, superfast sequencing has made it easier than ever to dig into these kinds of questions, and today, researchers will have an interesting new set of data to pore over from machines made by Menlo Park, CA-based Pacific Biosciences (NASDAQ: PACB). A global team of scientists, including researchers from PacBio, the University of Maryland, and Harvard Medical School, is reporting today that after sequencing the deadly strain of E.coli and comparing it with the sequences of 11 other strains, they were able to zero in on certain regions of the bacterial genome where mutations occurred that are thought to hvae made the new pathogen so dangerous. The findings are being published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
