Timothy D. Read Ph.D.
Division of Infectious Diseases &
Department of Human Genetics
Emory University School of Medicine
Director, Emory GRA Genomics Center

Technologies now exist for very rapid, accurate whole genome sequencing of microorganisms, ensuring that any future novel emerging disease agent is likely to be sequenced very shortly after isolation in pure culture. 

For many species we have moved rapidly out of the discovery-rich ‘genomic era’ into a ‘population genomic era’ where the accumulated data can be used to develop new hypothesis and perform in silico reality testing of experimental ideas. 

For most uses, large populations of high redundancy draft genomes are sufficient to help with design of better vaccines and diagnostics. There are opportunities to develop new tools, to create better genome sequences and to address interesting but difficult problems like predicting the level of virulence of a pathogen for a given host.  These challenges require integrating data from functional studies, proteomics and transcriptomics.