GATC to develop sepsis-inducing pathogen test

Germany's GATC Biotech, a specialist DNA sequencing services provider, has entered into a collaboration that aims to develop a DNA-microarray based diagnostic test capable of detecting sepsis-triggering pathogens. The company's partners in the project include the fellow Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Informatics, the National University of Pusan, South Korea, and biotechnology firm Gene In Corp, also based in South Korea.

The accord, which is being partially funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research and Technology in Germany, is one of several that GATC has established. Others include: CONSERT, an evaluation of the safety and efficiency of retroviral transgenesis for gene therapy; XENOME, which is focused on the detection of retroviral elements in the porcine genome; and EURESFUN, for which it is developing integrated post-genomic approaches for the understanding, detection and prevention of drug resistance in fungal pathogens.