Life Technologies’ Ion Machine Speeds Analyses of Deadly European Illness

Rapid genetic analysis made possible by Carlsbad, CA-based Life Technologies’ new semiconductor sequencing technology strongly suggests that the cause of a deadly foodborne outbreak sweeping Europe is an aggressive mutant type of two pathogenic E. coli strains.

The illness has left 18 dead in Germany, where the outbreak is focused, and sickened thousands in nine European countries. The World Health Organization says preliminary genetic sequencing indicates the pathogen responsible is a hybrid never before seen. While E. coli is both common and prevalent, WHO food safety expert Hilde Kruse told the Associated Press that various characteristics of the new strain make it more virulent and toxin-producing.

Life Technologies acquired the rapid sequencing technology last August with its acquisition of Ion Torrent Systems. The company began shipping what it now calls the Ion PGM (Personal Genome Machine) in December to research scientists in North America, Europe, and Asia.

In a statement today, Life Technologies says German scientists using its DNA analyzer were able to discover within days that the pathogen had a unique combination of virulent traits from two different types of E. coli: enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) and enteroaggregative E. coli (EAEC). A shared characteristic of the enterohemorrhagic strain and the new hybrid bacterium is that both cause watery or bloody diarrhea. In severe cases, EHEC also attacks the blood, kidneys and brain, causing a life-threatening complication known as hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS), according to Germany’s Spiegel Online.

Additional data gathered at Life Technologies’ laboratories in Darmstadt, Germany, will be used by scientists at the University Hospital Muenster, to develop better tests to positively identify the illness in people with early symptoms of infection. Additional work also could help scientists determine the specific traits that make this strain so aggressive.

“The severity of this outbreak meant that speed was of the essence,” said Life Technologies Simone Guenther, who conducted the sequencing, in a statement from the company. “We were able to provide the data in record time to University Hospital Muenster. In previous outbreaks it would have taken much longer to reach this stage.”

Once the sequencing data has been fully analyzed in the next few days, the medical technology company near San Diego plans to develop new customized kits specifically designed to detect the hybrid strain.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.