Elizabeth A. Mothershed

TL;DR: A major area of advancement in nucleic acid-based assay development has been for specific and broad-range detection of bacterial pathogens.

TL;DR: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention developed, optimized, and rapidly qualified an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies to Bacillus anthracis protective antigen (PA) in human serum that proved valuable for the confirmation of cases of cutaneous and inhalational anthrax and evaluation of patients in whom the diagnosis of anthrax was being considered.

TL;DR: The ability of SGS-PCR to efficiently resolve SASG discrepancies is demonstrated and the main cause of the discrepancies is overreporting of these isolates as nongroupable, which prompted prospective monitoring for SASGs involving isolates collected through ABCs in the United States.

TL;DR: Good correlation between the PFGE and the epidemiological data was observed, with an overall sensitivity of 85% and specificity of 71% at the 95% pattern relatedness breakpoint and for all four analyzed outbreaks, PFGE would have given public health officials additional support in declaring an outbreak and making appropriate public health decisions.

TL;DR: It is concluded that well-defined phylogenetic groups of NTHI strains exist and that these groups differ in genetic content, and will provide a framework for further study of the effect of genetic diversity on the interaction of NthI with the host.