Targeted Hybridization Capture for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance in Complex Environmental Samples

Wastewater surveillance has become an increasingly valuable approach for monitoring antimicrobial resistance (AMR) within a One Health framework.  However, comprehensive characterization of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in complex environmental samples remains challenging using conventional methodologies alone.

Join Helena Torrell, PhD, and Douglas Hurd, PhD, for a webinar discussing the challenges of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance in complex environmental samples and the growing need for sensitive, targeted genomic approaches.  Douglas will provide an overview of Agilent’s SureSelect target enrichment technology prior to Next Generation Sequencing and its role in enhancing the detection of low-abundance gene sequences, before introducing guest speaker Helena Torrell, PhD. Helena will share her team’s innovative application of targeted hybridization capture for wastewater-based AMR surveillance.

This presentation will introduce a targeted hybridization capture strategy we developed to enhance the detection and characterization of known ARGs in environmental samples.  Using hospital wastewater as a case study, the presentation will discuss the outstanding performance of our targeted enrichment approach for AMR surveillance, demonstrating its potential advantages and comparing its performance with untargeted shotgun metagenomic sequencing. The session will also address the opportunities and current limitations of targeted capture technologies for environmental resistome monitoring and their potential role in future surveillance programs.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn how targeted capture improves ARG detection and environmental samples.
2. Compare targeted enrichment with shotgun metagenomic sequencing for AMR surveillance.
3. Explore the benefits and limitations of targeted capture for resistome monitoring

Presenter:  Helena Torrell Galceran, PhD ( Head of the Genomics Platform, Omic Sciences Unit, Eurecat Technology Center, Barcelona, Spain)

Helena Torrell, PhD in Biomedicine, is the Head of the Genomics Platform within the Omic Sciences Unit at Eurecat Technology Center (Barcelona, Spain).  She specializes in microbial genomics, metagenomics, and next-generation sequencing technologies, with a particular focus on developing genomic tools for infectious disease research, antimicrobial resistance surveillance, and environmental monitoring.  She leads the implementation of advanced sequencing technologies and supports multidisciplinary research projects aimed at translating genomic into practical applications for public health, clinical research, and the One Health framework. 

Presenter:  Douglas Hurd, PhD (Field Application Scientist, Agilent)

Dr. Douglas Hurd has worked in Customer support and R&D roles for many years within the Biotechnology industry.  He currently supports Agilent’s genomics instrumentation and reagents, as well as the Automated electrophoresis instruments such as the TapeStation, Fragment Analyzer, and ProteoAnalyzer.