On April 29, the Laboratoire national de santé (LNS), through its Department of Microbiology, brought together healthcare professionals for a conference dedicated to the topic: “The Role of Metagenomics in Microbiological Diagnostics.”

This event highlighted the latest advances and applications of metagenomics in the field of infectious disease diagnostics. This innovative approach makes it possible to directly identify infectious agents from a clinical sample, particularly in situations where conventional methods face certain limitations, such as:

ongoing antibiotic treatment;
the presence of non-cultivable microorganisms;
low-grade infections or complex mixed infections.

The conference opened with a welcome address by Dr. Thomas Dentzer, Director of the LNS.

Participants then attended several presentations, including:

an introduction to the historical background and biological principles of high-throughput metagenomic sequencing (NGS), presented by Dr. med. Ute Aurbach, MScID, Head of the Department of Microbiology at the LNS, Dr. sc. Berger Sibel, Head of the Pathogen Sequencing Service, and Dr. Monique Perrin, Head of the Bacteriology Service;
a presentation of DISQVER by Frederic Vigier, representative of Noscendo;
a clinical feedback session presented by Prof. Dr. med. Hilmar Wisplinghoff.

The discussions with clinicians and hospital partners were particularly insightful and confirmed the importance of close collaboration between healthcare stakeholders in order to further advance practices in microbiological diagnostics.