More than 30 new species of bacteria discovered in patient samples

Unknown germs are a common occurrence in hospitals. Researchers at the University of Basel have spent many years collecting and analyzing them. They have identified many new species of bacteria, some of which are significant for clinical practice.

Bacterial infections can be treated more efficiently if the cause of the disease is known. In most cases, all it takes to identify a pathogen is an analysis in a medical laboratory. Sometimes, however, the standard methods are insufficient – for example, if the species of bacteria has not yet been classified or is particularly difficult to grow.

A team from the University of Basel and the University Hospital Basel has been collecting and analyzing patient samples containing such unknown germs since 2014. The researchers have discovered more than 30 new species of bacteria, some of which are associated with clinically relevant infections.

Conventional laboratory methods, such as mass spectroscopy or sequencing a small part of the bacterial genome, had failed to produce results for all these isolates. That is why the researchers sequenced the complete genetic material of the bacteria using a method that has only been available for a few years. They then compared the identified genome sequences with known strains in an online tool.

Image source: Sylvia Suter, University Hospital Basel.