Whole-genome sequencing of 2011 E. coli outbreaks in Europe provides new insight

Using whole-genome sequencing, a team led by researchers from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Broad Institute has traced the path of the E. coli outbreak that sickened thousands and killed more than 50 people in Germany in summer 2011 and also caused a smaller outbreak in France. It is one of the first uses of genome sequencing to study the dynamics of a food-borne outbreak and provides further evidence that genomic tools can be used to investigate future outbreaks and provide greater insight into the emergence and spread of infectious diseases.

The study, conducted in collaboration with groups at the Pasteur Institute in France, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, and Statens Serum Institut in Denmark, appears on February 6, 2012 in an advance online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“A genome contains the record of a strain’s evolutionary history, so by looking at the differences between the genomes of multiple bacteria from an outbreak we can get really useful clues about what happened in the outbreak. In this way, tracking outbreaks is like detective work, and this approach will be a powerful tool in trying to understand future outbreaks,” said lead author Yonatan Grad, a research fellow in the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Department of Epidemiology at HSPH and infectious disease physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.