The 100K Genome Project: Tracking foodborne illness to its source
| One in six Americans is sickened by foodborne illness each year, leading to an estimated 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Many food outbreak events are never linked definitively to a food source or agent. However, quickly pinning down the source of an outbreak is essential for connecting a food facility or farm responsible for contamination and preventing further illness. To this end, “The 100K Genome Project”, born out of collaboration between FDA, UC-Davis, and Agilent Technologies and growing quickly, is sequencing the genetic codes (genomes) of 100,000 strains of important food pathogens, such as Salmonella, and making them available in a free and public database at NIH’s National Center for Biotechnology Information. This endeavor will increase, by nearly 100-fold, the number of food pathogen genomes available in the public domain, fostering development of tests that will identify a bacterium at a much faster rate than current methods permit. The database also promotes a safe food supply for all Americans by providing a developmental roadmap for strategies to trace invading food pathogens back to their source and by serving as a valuable model for how public-private partnerships may overcome otherwise intractable challenges to public health. Contact Info: Visit the Public Website for the 100K Genome Project at http://100kgenome.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/index.cfm or contact Dr. Bart Weimer (530-752-5819 | bcweimer@ucdavis.edu) or Dr. Eric W. Brown (240-402-2020 | eric.brown@fda.hhs.gov) for more information. Websites: http://100kgenome.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/about/index.cfm Video: Interview with Dr. Bart Weimer about the 100K Genome Project, Interview transcript |
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The 100K Genome Project: Tracking foodborne illness to its source
The “100K Genome Project” is creating an open-source database of 100,000 foodborne pathogen genomes through an innovative partnership among government, business and academia. This important contribution to public health is cost-effective and represents a sustainable effort that could only have been achieved through the combining of resources from multiple stakeholders, ultimately resulting in a critical tool for preventing and responding to outbreaks of foodborne disease. More details ...
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