Name: Sharon Peacock Title: Professor of clinical microbiology, Departments of Medicine and Pathology at the University of Cambridge; Honorary consultant microbiologist at the Health Protection Agency and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust; Honorary faculty at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Education: BS in medicine, University of Southampton; MRCP, Royal College of Physicians, London; MS in medical microbiology, University of London; PhD, Oxford University and Open University Whole-genome sequencing has recently made strides as a tool that can be used in public health surveillance. Most recently, the National Institutes of Health published a study in which they used sequencing in real time during an outbreak to track transmission and make decisions about how to manage the outbreak (CSN 8/20/2012).

Earlier this summer, groups from the UK published studies in the New England Journal of Medicine and BMJ Open, demonstrating the ability of sequencing retrospectively to track MRSA outbreaks in hospitals (CSN 6/20/2012).

Sharon Peacock, an author of the NEJM study, has been making significant gains in bringing whole-genome sequencing into a public health setting.

Under grants from the UK Clinical Research Collaboration and the UK's Health Protection Agency she has been working alongside collaborators, such as Julian Parkhill's team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and David Aanensen at Imperial College, to develop tools that will enable public health organizations to adopt sequencing for surveillance and diagnostics.

Peacock also published an editorial recently in PLoS Pathogens on the use of sequencing in public health microbiology.

She is currently working within the Cambridge UKCRC consortium to develop databases of pathogen genomes and create interpretation tools for public health organizations, diagnostic laboratories, and health care workers.

Recently, Peacock spoke with Clinical Sequencing News about her work in bringing whole-genome sequencing into clinical microbiology for public health surveillance.

What is the goal of the Cambridge UKCRC consortium?

Our objective is to try and translate whole-genome sequencing into diagnostic and public health microbiology where it's been shown to make a difference either to individual patient care or public health surveillance. At the moment, we're working particularly on [methicillin-resistant Streptococcus aureus], but we're just in the process of expanding this out to a range of other pathogens that are important for human infection.

Can you describe the work that you're doing with MRSA?

Read more:
Q&A: U of Cambridge's Sharon Peacock on Next-Gen Sequencing for Public Health Surveillance