Applications of Next-Generation Sequencing in Clinical and Public Health Microbiology

Dear Colleagues,

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is a promising tool used to inspect various aspects of clinical and public health microbiology. Notably, NGS has provided an opportunity to detect pathogens even where conventional techniques fall short. Besides identifying the key pathogens with high precision, NGS has great potential to explore and understand the dynamics and genome biology of clinically relevant microbes/microbial communities (both pathogens and commensals) in a host environment.

Recent advancements in high-throughput sequencing technologies have accelerated the applications of NGS in clinical microbiology, leading to the generation of a large amount of data that need regular investigation from a comparative point of view and with modern and improved tools and techniques of bioinformatics and statistics. The microbiome is the heart of NGS studies, highlighting the role of microbial communities in health and diseases. In addition, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the high-value application of (meta)genomic surveillance of diseases to track the transmission and study the real-time evolution of microbes. Similarly, transcriptomics is emerging as an advanced tool used to study host–microbe interactions in a given environment or health condition.

In this Special Issue, we are interested in publishing research articles and reviews on applications of NGS in clinical and public health microbiology. In particular, submissions should be focused on highlighting the traits and mechanisms of microbes/microbial communities involved in health and disease conditions.

Dr. Vikas Sharma
Prof. Dr. Manisha Biswal
Dr. Archana Angrup
Guest Editors

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