The company’s Candida.app platform enables genomic characterization of Candida auris, which may improve the classification and management of new outbreaks, and help epidemiologists prevent further cases.
Candida auris is a multidrug-resistant fungal pathogen posing a serious public health threat due to its fast spread, high transmissibility, and high mortality rate of up to 60%.
Global health organizations, including the CDC and the World Health Organization, have labeled it a growing concern. It particularly threatens hospitalized individuals, older adults, and those with weakened immune systems.
“Genomics has been a great help in categorizing and tracking recent Candida auris outbreaks as with any emerging pathogen. We are thrilled to launch a pioneering tool for the genomic epidemiology of Candida auris to help hospitals and health organizations tackle this significant thread more efficiently,” says Sam Sihvonen, CEO and co-founder of Solu.
The use of genome sequencing in identifying and tracking Candida auris outbreaks is widely recognized, with the CDC establishing its own Candida auris surveillance program.
However, genomic characterization of Candida auris remains challenging, particularly for non-bioinformaticians.
The resistance analysis provided by Candida.app is based on AFRBase, the largest antifungal resistance database.
According to Solu, its tool is the first to make this database accessible in a ‘user-friendly’ format.
"Our Candida.app is a streamlined, effective tool for utilizing genomic sequencing to manage these outbreaks. This quick and simple method of monitoring Candida auris at the genome level has enormous potential to enable better research and efficient prevention in the future. At Solu, we are determined to pioneer in this space and will continue to develop more tools and technologies for better epidemic prevention," Sihvonen concludes.
Candida.app accepts genomes, either as contigs or scaffolds, and performs basic quality standardization and error correction. Users can easily upload a genome file to the tool and receive results without the need for any configurations.
Solu currently handles the analysis of bacterial genomes for multiple organizations including Stanford University, CDC, and the University of Hamburg.
