Grant: Project Grant

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as gonorrhea, which is caused by a bacterium called Neisseria gonorrhoeae (Ng), and chlamydia, which is caused by Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct), are important public health concerns. Often patients carry both Ng and Ct. They may also be infected by Mycoplasma genitalium (Mg), a previously-rare pathogen that is now causing increasing numbers of infections. When a patient visits a doctor with a possible STI, a specimen is taken from the patient so that the pathogen(s) can be identified. Unfortunately, usually the patient is treated with antibiotics based on a preliminary diagnosis by the doctor and before the identity of the pathogen(s) has been determined. Because bacteria causing STIs are becoming resistant to antibiotics, it is also important to know before treatment which antibiotics would be effective. Unfortunately, traditional methods of diagnosing STIs do not simultaneously determine antibiotic susceptibility. The initial goal of this project is to develop methods to sequence the entire genomes of three possible STI pathogens from a single clinical specimen using state-of-the-art but inexpensive commercial equipment. Our subsequent goal is to develop software that will use the genome sequence data to identify the presence of Ng, Ct or Mg, and to determine the antibiotics to which the bacteria are susceptible. This information will then be used by the patient's doctor to choose the most effective treatment. Another problem with current techniques is that they provide no real-time information regarding how different strains of collected bacteria are related. The information generated as part of this project will provide such data to epidemiologists and public health officials, which will allow them to better understand, track, and prevent STI outbreaks.