Episode 133: The Role of Bioinformatics in Public Health and Disease Outbreaks
👥Guest
In this episode of the Micro Binfie podcast, host Andrew Page talks with Dr. Erin Young, a bioinformatician at the Utah Public Health Laboratory, recorded during the 10th Microbial Bioinformatics Hackathon in Bethesda, Maryland. Erin shares her journey from researching hereditary cancer predisposition to her current role in public health bioinformatics, which she entered through a prestigious CDC and APHL fellowship.
The conversation delves into her work with bacterial pathogens, particularly in tracking antimicrobial resistance in organisms like Klebsiella. Erin discusses the tools she uses for genome typing, such as MASH, FastANI, and SKA, and her innovative research on the accuracy of long-read sequencing technologies like Nanopore for detecting antimicrobial resistance genes. She also provides a preview of her upcoming poster for ASM, where she examines how Nanopore reads can be used effectively in public health microbiology. This episode offers a fascinating look at how bioinformatics and genomics are advancing the fight against infectious diseases.
Key Points
1. Career Transition
- Moved from cancer research to public health bioinformatics
- Entered the field through a prestigious CDC and APHL fellowship
- Transitioned from academic research to applied public health work
2. Research Focus
- Specializes in bacterial pathogen genome typing
- Primary focus on Klebsiella species subtyping
- Works on challenging taxonomic classification and outbreak analysis
3. Nanopore Sequencing Research
- Investigating antimicrobial resistance gene detection using raw nanopore reads
- Exploring accuracy of long-read sequencing technologies
- Developing methods to improve AMR gene identification
Take-Home Messages
- Bioinformatics enables critical public health pathogen tracking
- Innovative sequencing technologies are transforming disease outbreak analysis
- Flexible computational approaches are crucial in microbiological research