Validation of a fully automated 16S/ITS tNGS solution for agnostic detection of bacterial and fungal pathogens

Agnostic detection of bacterial and fungal pathogens can be achieved via 16S rRNA and ITS gene targeted next generation sequencing (tNGS), respectively. Integrating tNGS workflows with automation will enable laboratorians to perform complex operations with minimal training and has been proven successful for application in the food safety and infectious diseases space. Here, we evaluated the performance of our newly launched fully automated Clear Dx™ Microbial ID tNGS solution across a variety of bacterial and fungal pathogens. Our assay has the ability to detect down to 10^3 genome copies/5 µL for bacteria and 10^2 genome copies/5 µL for fungi in the presence of host DNA background. This solution will empower laboratories to effectively detect bacterial and fungal pathogens in-house with minimal technical expertise and hands-on time.