BioMerieux and Illumina launch bacterial infection monitoring service

BioMerieux has allied with Illumina to launch a new next-generation sequencing service dedicated to epidemiological monitoring and control of healthcare-associated infections.

Dubbed BioMerieux EpiSeq, the service is the first result of a collaboration agreement signed by BioMerieux and Illumina in November 2014 to bring together the companies' respective leadership positions in microbiology and next-generation sequencing.

The new offering is designed to provide highly accurate information to health professionals to help them characterise bacteria, making it easier for them to understand how bacteria are transmitted, while enabling better containment of epidemics.

Hospitals will be able to send bacterial isolates to a service laboratory designated by BioMerieux and equipped with an Illumina MiSeq sequencer, with genomic data stored in a secure cloud platform and analysed using BioMerieux software.

Jean-Luc Belingard, chairman of BioMerieux, said: "This new offer represents a valuable innovation and opens up new prospects that can bring this revolutionary technology to tomorrow’s healthcare."

The BioMerieux EpiSeq service will first be launched in Europe, followed by North America and Asia. Its menu will initially consist of Staphylococcus aureus, with further expansions planned at a later date.