We are pleased to announce our transition to a new next-generation sequencing (NGS) drug resistance screening service, which provides improved detection capabilities over traditional Sanger based drug resistance screening  for low-level drug resistance mutations. Our NGS screening assays can reliably detect drug resistance mutations as low as 5% frequency within the viral population (compared to traditional Sanger methods which typically detect mutations at 15-20% frequency).

With enhanced NGS capabilities, we aim to incorporate sub-population percentages for drug resistance mutations into your result reports in order to support clinical decision-making for treatment strategies.  For instance, upon detecting mutations such as M184MV, we will provide more detailed information on the proportion present in the specimen (e.g., M184MV (M184V present at 25%).

We understand that rapid turnaround from sample receipt to result is very important to our clients and therefore we are conducting our improved NGS drug resistance screening service with equivalent turnaround times to our current Sanger based screening methods.

The following drug resistance screening assays will now be conducted using our NGS assay:

Virus	Assay Targets	Turnaround Time
HIV-1	Protease, Reverse Transcriptase, Integrase	9 working days
HSV-1	UL23, UL30	9 working days
CMV	UL54, UL97. UL56, UL89	9 working days
HBV	RT domain	9 working days

If you have any questions or require further information about our NGS drug resistance screening service, please email info@micropathology.com or phone 02476 323222.