NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) - CLC Bio is partnering with Inqaba Biotechnical Industries, a genomic services firm based in Pretoria, South Africa, to sequence, assemble, and analyze data from multiple strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bioinformatics firm said last week.
The goal of the study, called the South African Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome sequencing project, is to find genetic differences between drug sensitive, extreme drug-resistant, and multi-drug-resistant strains that Inqaba is sequencing on its 454 GS FLX system.
CLC Bio will analyze the data with a new platform it is developing called CLC Genomics Workbench, which is aimed at next-generation sequencing and whole-genome assembly.
Oliver Preisig, executive director at Inqaba, said in a statement that the company plans to identify specific markers that it will include in a PCR-based diagnostic.
The sequencing project is funded by BioPAD, a biotechnology investment trust funded by the Department of Science and Technology of South Africa. Other partners in the project include the Chris Hani Baragwanath business unit of South Africa’s National Health Laboratory Services and the Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at the University of Witwatersrand.
CLC Bio said it will release CLC Genomics Workbench in May.