REP-PCR TECHNOLOGY IDENTIFIES BACTERIA.A database of DNA fingerprints of bacteria that infect livestock and companion animals is being developed through a new contract between the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratories (TVMDL TVMDL Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory ) and Bacterial BarCodes, Inc., a Houston start-up biotech company. TVMDL, which is part of the Texas A&M University System, offers diagnostic laboratory services to the animal industries in Texas. The database will be developed from bacterial samples already collected by TVMDL from animals submitted by veterinarians and animal health researchers around the world. The database is scheduled for completion by the end of 2002. At that time, veterinary medicine veterinary medicine, diagnosis and treatment of diseases of animals. An early interest in animal diseases is found in ancient Greek writings on medicine. Veterinary medicine began to achieve the stature of a science with the organization of the first school in the specialists will be able to submit samples from animals for identification by Bacterial BarCodes' new method. Bacterial BarCodes markets an innovative DNA fingerprinting DNA fingerprinting or DNA profiling, any of several similar techniques for analyzing and comparing DNA from separate sources, used especially in law enforcement to identify suspects from hair, blood, semen, or other biological materials found at technology called rep-PCR that can identify bacteria with a high level of accuracy and in a fraction of the time that comparable methods can, using standard laboratory equipment. Each bacterial substrain has a unique rep-PCR DNA fingerprint, a molecular version of the UPC (Universal Product Code) The standard bar code printed on retail merchandise, which is administered by GS1 US, Brussels, Belgium and Lawrenceville, NJ (www.gs1.org). barcodes used in grocery stores. "Knowing which bacterial strain a sick animal is carrying and where it came from is critical to preventing outbreaks in livestock and contamination of the meat supply," said Dr. A. K. Eugster, Executive Director of TVMDL at College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, situated in Central Texas. It is located in the heart of the Brazos Valley. The city is located within the most populated region of Texas, near to three of the 10 largest cities in the United States - Houston, Dallas, and San . "We are excited about our participation in a program that will define the study of bacterial and fungal infections in the next five years." Drew Taylor, president of Bacterial BarCodes said, "We are pleased about our collaboration with TVMDL because it gives us the opportunity to demonstrate our technology and advance its use in improving the health of animals and humans. The contract with TVMDL is one of several collaborations we are planning with nonprofit and commercial organizations." Bacterial BarCodes is a spin-off company of BCM BCM Baylor College of Medicine BCM Become BCM Business Communications Manager (Nortel) BCM Broadcom Corporation BCM Business Continuity Management BCM Business Contact Manager (Microsoft) Technologies, Inc., the venture development subsidiary of Baylor College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine is a private medical school located in Houston, Texas, USA on the grounds of the Texas Medical Center. It has been consistently rated the top medical school in Texas and among the best in the United States. . The Bacterial BarCodes technology was invented and patented by Dr. James Lupski, professor of pediatrics and molecular and human genetics at Baylor, and Dr. James Versalovic, formerly at Baylor and now assistant professor of pathology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology Massachusetts Institute of Technology, at Cambridge; coeducational; chartered 1861, opened 1865 in Boston, moved 1916. It has long been recognized as an outstanding technological institute and its Sloan School of Management has notable programs in business, . Dr. Frans J. de Bruijn, director of the Laboratoire de Biologie Moleculaire des Relations Plantes-Microorganismes in France, developed the technology for commercial use. For more information, call 713-467-8500. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion