CosmosID, a leading genomic big data company, announced a partnership with Qiagen to launch its metagenomics analysis platform in Qiagen’s CLC Genomics Workbench. This will complete the comprehensive metagenomics application offered in Qiagen’s microbial genomics solution.  CosmosID will enable Qiagen’s customers to employ shotgun metagenomics and microbiome analysis for fields such as infectious disease, animal health, agriculture, environmental, and food safety.

By adding CosmosID’s platform to the CLC Genomics workbench, researchers will be able to rapidly profile microbial communities from whole genome shotgun data, and determine their relative abundance. CosmosID’s platform identifies to strain level by placement on a phylogenetic tree and allows comparative analyses of datasets employing heat maps and principal component analysis.

“Researchers running metagenomic, microbial and other applications often need to rely on complicated data analysis tools from different sources”, says Laura Furmanski, senior vice president of Qiagen Bioinformatics business area. “The addition of CosmosID expands the range of metagenomics applications that Qiagen customers can access in our single, user-friendly NGS data interpretation platform.”

Chris Mason, Associate Professor in Genetics from Weil Cornell Medical School said, “I have explored the microbiome of everything from the NY subway to outer space and the software analysis component is critically important. CosmosID provides a robust tool for the quantification and detection of microorganisms and antimicrobial resistance markers and we are actively using it for onsite in situ diagnostics.”

In the agricultural space, CosmosID’s microbiome analysis can be used for increased crop production and better plant performance in harsh or changing environmental conditions. For animal health applications, the technology can support disease diagnostics and outbreak surveillance. Additionally, food safety can be improved through rapid and accurate detection of both common and novel food borne pathogens. With a targeted database for hospital acquired infections (HAIs), hospitals can better monitor, prevent and predict HAI outbreaks.

Rita Colwell, Founder and Chair, says, “As a pioneer in the field of microbial ecology, I am very familiar with the need to understand microbial community structure and function. CosmosID developed an accurate, reproducible system that provides actionable identification of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites, literally within minutes, using DNA sequencing.”

CosmosID, based in Rockville, Maryland, is a genomics big data company focused on rapid identification of microorganisms for molecular diagnostics, public health, food safety, agriculture, and environmental applications.

Qiagen N.V., a Netherlands-based holding company, is the leading global provider of Sample to Insight solutions to transform biological materials into valuable molecular insights.