Agilent and Los Alamos automated genotyping system is ready to fight flu

Agilent Technologies researchers in the US are developing new tools for rapidly characterising biological pathogens that could give rise to pandemics such as Influenza A H1N1.

The first tool, an automated genotyping system, is a joint effort between Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Public Health and Agilent. It will be used in the Global Bio Lab at UCLA.

The US$1.7m BioCel Automation System will be able automatically to determine the genetic sequence of viruses such as influenza hundreds of times faster than any other method available today.

The BioCel systems will also be useful in research mode for monitoring animal populations for the emergence of potentially deadly pathogens before the they are able to infect humans.

The UCLA Global Bio Lab will become part of the High Throughput Laboratory Network (HTLN), which will provide an international and interconnected capacity that enables uniformity in testing methods.

"As the recent outbreak of the swine flu shows, we need to do a much more extensive and thorough job of surveillance," said Dr Tony Beugelsdijk, leader of the HTLN project at Los Alamos. "This programme will provide the world with the tools for this task."

The new genotyping system features two robots and can fully sequence 10,000 or more influenza viruses a year.

"This system is the next-generation tool to test and rapidly identify biological pathogens in mass quantities of samples," said Nick Roelofs, vice president and general manager of Agilent Life Sciences Solutions Unit.

Los Alamos and UCLA researchers are currently determining protocols for culturing and screening processes that can be used with the BioCel system. Establishing such protocols is the next step toward making the Global Bio Lab at UCLA fully operational.