The study of microbiology is advancing rapidly, enabling researchers to discover things that would have seemed impossible in the not-so-distant past. One of the new technologies is the mapping of the microbial genomes. The first bacterial genome was mapped six years ago, required 13 months of effort, and had a price tag of over one million dollars. This process can now be done in a matter of days for a thousandth of the cost. The mapping of microbial genomes has many applications.
One of the applications of the genome mapping of microbes is identifying what bacteria is causing a disease. Using this technology, scientists were able to identify the cause of death of a man who showed symptoms of an anthrax victim. Through the sequencing of the genome, they were able to establish that the pathogen was not anthrax but rather a closely-related bacteria that was naturally-occurring. Genome mapping has also been used to find the origins of diseases such as the cholera outbreak in Haiti as well as the Black Death that ravaged Europe in the 1300s. Another application of bacterial genome mapping is to prevent disease. Dr. Eric Schadt, one of the lead scientists in this technology, wants to use it to create disease weather maps. He proposed taking samples of surfaces in public places and analyzing the microbes and their prevalence to predict what diseases would be affecting the population. This new technology will revolutionize the way disease is studied and improve the prevention of disease.
This is a summary of a New York Times article titled, "The New Generation of Microbe Hunters."
No it's actually relatively affordable. The article said it was around $1,000 to map a bacterial genome, and they have already been mapping a few thousand bacterial genomes. Since they already are building a database of genomic maps, they simply need to see if the two sequences match. Plus as the procedure is improved, the cost will decrease.
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