Researchers in the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and their colleagues in the WHO Global Laboratory Network have developed a new tool for pathogen surveillance and discoverythe GreeneChip System. The GreeneChip is the first tool to provide comprehensive, differential diagnosis of infectious diseases, including those caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, or parasites. In addition, it is the first tool that can be used on a wide variety of samples, including tissue, blood, urine, and stool, allowing for the rapid identification of pathogens in a variety of laboratory and clinical settings.

The GreeneChip system and its application in an outbreak investigation when other methods failed to implicate a microorganism in a fatal hemorrhagic fever case is described in the January 2007 issue of the CDCs Emerging Infectious Diseases (online December 6 at www.cdc.gov/EID/13/1/06-0837.htm).

Globalization of travel and trade brings new infectious agents into new contexts. It is increasingly important to be prepared for the unexpected. "Because clinical syndromes are rarely specific for single pathogens, methods that simultaneously screen for multiple agents are important, particularly when early accurate diagnosis can alter treatment or assist in containment of an outbreak," stated W. Ian Lipkin, MD, director of the Greene Infectious Disease Laboratory at the Mailman Schools Department of Epidemiology. He added, "To address the challenges of emerging infectious diseases and biodefense, public health practitioner and diagnosticians need a comprehensive set of tools for pathogen surveillance and detection."

GreeneChip features include a comprehensive microbial sequence database that integrates previously distinct reserves of information about pathogensfor every entry of a pathogen and its properties, the GreeneChip contains a correl
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Contact: Randee Sacks Levine
rs363@columbia.edu
212-305-8044
Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
6-Dec-2006