Strain Genotyping

 In addition to identification, the Ibis T5000™ Biosensor System was designed to provide detailed information about a microbe, such as its genotypic fingerprint, whether it might be resistant to certain antibiotics, and if it carries certain virulence factors.

 Classical genotyping is performed by sequencing certain genomic regions that contain variations. The Ibis T5000 can perform this analysis without sequencing, since changes in sequence correlate directly to changes in base composition.

 The method in which data are generated has significant practical value at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional methods. The robust genotyping procedure distinguishes closely related strains of bacterial and viral species. In the strain genotyping mode, primers targeted to genes with highly variable regions are used to help distinguish closely related strains within a given species.