Beyond research: a primer for considerations on using viral metagenomics in the field and clinic
Powered by recent advances in next-generation sequencing technologies, metagenomics has already unveiled vast microbial biodiversity in a range of environments, and is increasingly being applied in clinics for difficult-to-diagnose cases. It can be tempting to suggest that metagenomics could be used...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2015
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4373370/ |
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pubmed-43733702015-04-09 Beyond research: a primer for considerations on using viral metagenomics in the field and clinic Hall, Richard J. Draper, Jenny L. Nielsen, Fiona G. G. Dutilh, Bas E. Microbiology Powered by recent advances in next-generation sequencing technologies, metagenomics has already unveiled vast microbial biodiversity in a range of environments, and is increasingly being applied in clinics for difficult-to-diagnose cases. It can be tempting to suggest that metagenomics could be used as a “universal test” for all pathogens without the need to conduct lengthy serial testing using specific assays. While this is an exciting prospect, there are issues that need to be addressed before metagenomic methods can be applied with rigor as a diagnostic tool, including the potential for incidental findings, unforeseen consequences for trade and regulatory authorities, privacy and cultural issues, data sharing, and appropriate reporting of results to end-users. These issues will require consideration and discussion across a range of disciplines, with inclusion of scientists, ethicists, clinicians, diagnosticians, health practitioners, and ultimately the public. Here, we provide a primer for consideration on some of these issues. Frontiers Media S.A. 2015-03-25 /pmc/articles/PMC4373370/ /pubmed/25859244 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00224 Text en Copyright © 2015 Hall, Draper, Nielsen and Dutilh. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Hall, Richard J. Draper, Jenny L. Nielsen, Fiona G. G. Dutilh, Bas E. |
| spellingShingle |
Hall, Richard J. Draper, Jenny L. Nielsen, Fiona G. G. Dutilh, Bas E. Beyond research: a primer for considerations on using viral metagenomics in the field and clinic |
| author_facet |
Hall, Richard J. Draper, Jenny L. Nielsen, Fiona G. G. Dutilh, Bas E. |
| author_sort |
Hall, Richard J. |
| title |
Beyond research: a primer for considerations on using viral metagenomics in the field and clinic |
| title_short |
Beyond research: a primer for considerations on using viral metagenomics in the field and clinic |
| title_full |
Beyond research: a primer for considerations on using viral metagenomics in the field and clinic |
| title_fullStr |
Beyond research: a primer for considerations on using viral metagenomics in the field and clinic |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Beyond research: a primer for considerations on using viral metagenomics in the field and clinic |
| title_sort |
beyond research: a primer for considerations on using viral metagenomics in the field and clinic |
| description |
Powered by recent advances in next-generation sequencing technologies, metagenomics has already unveiled vast microbial biodiversity in a range of environments, and is increasingly being applied in clinics for difficult-to-diagnose cases. It can be tempting to suggest that metagenomics could be used as a “universal test” for all pathogens without the need to conduct lengthy serial testing using specific assays. While this is an exciting prospect, there are issues that need to be addressed before metagenomic methods can be applied with rigor as a diagnostic tool, including the potential for incidental findings, unforeseen consequences for trade and regulatory authorities, privacy and cultural issues, data sharing, and appropriate reporting of results to end-users. These issues will require consideration and discussion across a range of disciplines, with inclusion of scientists, ethicists, clinicians, diagnosticians, health practitioners, and ultimately the public. Here, we provide a primer for consideration on some of these issues. |
| publisher |
Frontiers Media S.A. |
| publishDate |
2015 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4373370/ |
| _version_ |
1613203395388112896 |