Zhijun, Zhao , Ph.D.
General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University
Current Positions:
(1) Team leader of Molecular Diagnosis, Clinical Laboratory Center, General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University;
(2) Associate Director, Ningxia Key Laboratory of Clinical and pathogenic Microbiology;
(3) Associate Professor, School of Clinical Medicine, Ningxia Medical University
(4) Division Chief, Science Research Department ,General Hospital of Ningxia Medical University.
Topic title: Rapid Clinical Bacteria Diagnosis Methods and Antitumor Molecules Research from the Parasite of Toxoplasma Gondii。
Abstract: Dr. Zhijun Zhao study on the bacterial resistance mechanism, molecular diagnosis, and the relationship between Toxoplasma gondii and the host. Recently, he focused on developing a rapid clinical bacteria diagnosis methods and antitumor molecules research from the parasite of Toxoplasma gondii.
Bloodstream infection (BSI) is a global problem with often fatal outcomes. Sepsis, a common sequela of BSI, is the primary cause of death due to infections. Time is of the essence in sepsis: every hour delay in appropriate antimicrobial therapy decreases survival by 7.6% . Blood culturing, which is the current gold standard for diagnosing sepsis, still takes at least 3 days to provide the pathogen identification (ID) needed to appropriate anti-infective therapy. While waiting for results, patients are continuously exposed to excessively broad-spectrum antimicrobials and/or ineffective therapy, which often leads to drug resistance, opportunistic infections, and death. Hence, there currently is an unmet clinical need for timely and accurate diagnosis of BSI. The most appealing approach to detect BSI is to use whole blood directly with pathogen ID in a molecular-based system such as quantitative PCR (qPCR). but it still suffers from suboptimal detection sensitivity for low-quantity pathogens, with a limited range of detectable pathogens, and a large volume of blood.
We have recently developed a pathogen diagnostic panel for bloodstream infection based on high-throughput sequencing, inculding Bacteria and fungi that commonly indentified from sepsis patients. This technology is different from metagenomic sequencing and 16s rRNA sequencing technologies, which target nearly 95% human pathogens in blood infection based on direct amplification of pathogen-specific fragments. It is operated on Ion GeneStudio S5 Plus System, and we can get high quality sequence data in a few hours. Comparing with traditional methods, this technology increased the diagnostic positive rate of pathogenic bacteria in bloodstream infection. Further analytical and clinical validation of this technology point towards its advantages like higher sensitivity and accuracy, lower cost and reduced turn-around time.
