`Superbug' Genome Unraveled in One Day

Two University of Texas-Houston Medical School faculty members, Drs. George Weinstock and Barbara Murray, have recently collaborated with the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute (JGI) to unravel in one day's workload the entire genome of a harmful bacterium, Enterococcus faecium. The bacterium has been dubbed the "superbug" and is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections.

"This is an excellent demonstration of the technological prowess of the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute," declared Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson.

Drs. Weinstock and Murray are co-directors of the Center for Study of Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens at UT-Houston. Dr. Murray is also a professor and director of the division of infectious diseases in the medical school's department of internal medicine, and Dr. Weinstock is a professor in the school's department of microbiology and molecular genetics. Both have faculty appointments at Baylor College of Medicine where Dr. Weinstock is co-director of the Human Genome Sequencing Center.

The 2.8 million base pairs of DNA that make up the genome of E. faecium were sequenced using a single day's production capacity at the JGI's Sequencing Facility in Walnut Creek, Calif. Says JGI Director Dr. Elbert Branscomb, who was assisted at JGI by Dr. Trevor Hawkins, "When George Weinstock asked me if we could help him with their work on this pathogen, we leapt at the chance to both demonstrate the capability and provide a useful service to the medical community." The effort completed the first phase of genome sequencing (the shotgun sequencing phase) to a level sufficient to permit essentially all of the organism's genes to be identified.

Armed with the bacterium's full genome sequence, medical researchers can now work on finding the organism's vulnerabilities and picking which protein targets to direct vaccines against, says Dr. Weinstock.

During the past 20 years, the prevalence of infections by E. faecium and other enterococci has surged dramatically. Enterococci cause serious infections in the blood, heart, urinary tract, central nervous system and in wounds.

"Hospital-acquired pathogens, such as E. faecium, have had greater impacts in industrialized nations like the U.S., especially in patients with long hospital stays, on multiple antibiotics, and with a number of medical problems such as cancer or prior surgery," adds Dr. Murray.

For more information on JGI and this project, see www.jgi.doe.gov and www.llnl.gov/PAO.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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