LLNL biologist Crystal Jaing is shown loading a fluorescently-labeled viral DNA sample onto the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array as fellow biologist James Thissen watches. Photo: Jacqueline McBride/LLNL |
Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has licensed its microbial detection array
technology to a St. Louis, Mo.-based company, MOgene LC, a supplier of DNA
microarrays and instruments.
Known
formally as the Lawrence Livermore Microbial Detection Array (LLMDA), the
technology could enable food safety professionals, law enforcement, medical
professionals, and others to detect within 24 hrs any virus or bacteria that
has been sequenced and included among the array’s probes.
Developed
between October 2007 and February 2008, the LLMDA detects viruses and bacteria
with the use of 388,000 probes that fit in a checkerboard pattern in the middle
of a one-inch wide, three-inch long glass slide.
The
current operational version of the LLMDA contains probes that can detect more
than 2,200 viruses and more than 900 bacteria.
The
LLMDA provides researchers with the capability of detecting pathogens over the
entire range of known viruses and bacteria. Current multiplex polymerase chain
reaction (PCR) techniques can at most offer detection from among 50 organisms
in one test.
The
Livermore team plans to update probes on the array with new sequences of
bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms from GenBank and other public
databases about once per year, in addition to using sequences obtained from collaborators
for their probes.
LLNL’s
current collaborators include the University of California, San Francisco; the
Blood Systems Research Institute; the University of Texas Medical Branch
(Galveston); the Statens Serum Institut of Copenhagen, Denmark; the University
of California, Davis; Imigene; the U.S. Food & Drug Administration; the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Naval Medical Research Center;
and the Marine Mammal Center of Sausalito, Calif.
A
computer scientist and the team’s leader, Tom Slezak came up with the idea for
the LLMDA in 2003. Slezak is one of 10 LLNL researchers named in February as a
Laboratory Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff. His team includes
biologist Crystal Jaing, who leads the microarray lab work and manages the
collaborations; bioinformaticist Shea Gardner, who designed the array;
biostatistician Kevin McLoughlin, who designed the analysis software; and James
Thissen, who performs the microarray experiments.
