New metagenomics technologies – pioneered by bioinformatics researchers at Flinders University and other laboratories – are revolutionising medical understanding about the roles of viruses in human health and disease.
Metagenomic sequencing techniques allows the study of microbiomes from all sorts of habitats, and using this to explore phages (bacteriophage genomes integrated into the circular bacterial chromosome) has expanded knowledge of viruses that integrate into bacterial genomes and how they benefit their hosts.
Flinders University PhD candidate Laura Inglis – part of the Flinders Accelerator for Microbiome Exploration (FAME) lab, an interdisciplinary research group at Flinders University’s College of Science and Engineering – has outlined the advantages in her new research published on transforming phages.
