SPADA Meeting Book

Background

• Well defined and well characterized assays are needed for  accurately detecting pathogens in environmental and  patient samples and also for evaluation of the efficacy of a  medical countermeasure that may be administered to  patients. PCR is the Gold Standard • However, traditionally, creation of PCR assays often involves  iterations of design, preliminary testing, and thorough  validation with clinical isolates and testing in relevant  matrices, which can be time consuming, costly, and result  in sub‐optimal assays. • Computational approaches are needed to can reduce the  amount of effort wasted on empirical optimization and  iterative re‐designs and also guide validation studies.

Background

• More genome sequences are available now allowing for  robust in silico approaches for assay design. • Stream lined and rational approaches are needed for  validation of new assays. SPADA panel testing needs to  be guided by in silico approaches to select strains for  testing. • Availability of organisms of BSL3/BSL4 categories has  become more restrictive after 2015 DoD moratorium. • Obtaining reference materials from far away outbreaks  have become extremely difficult. • In silico approaches can potentially mitigate these issues  and result in better performing assays