Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a critical global public health threat affecting populations across geographic boundaries. In 2019, more than 1.27 million deaths were directly attributable to AMR, with projections estimating up to 40 million deaths by 2040 in the absence of new antimicrobials, diagnostics, and stewardship interventions.
This presentation highlights ATCC’s microbial strain resources that enable antimicrobial drug discovery, diagnostics, and quality control. It will feature a newly assembled collection of over 100 clinically derived strains representing drug-resistant bacterial species included on the 2024 WHO Bacterial Priority Pathogens List. Each strain is phenotypically characterized using VITEK 2 and CLSI minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) methods. The collection captures a broad range of resistance phenotypes, complemented by resistance heat maps to facilitate strain comparison and selection.
All strains are backed by reference-quality genome assemblies generated using hybrid short- and long-read sequencing. Genomes are annotated using a standardized pipeline, subjected to rigorous quality control, and accompanied by methylation profiles derived from long-read data. All datasets are available through the ATCC Genome Portal.
Together, this collection provides a robust set of well‑characterized reference strains to advance antimicrobial discovery, compound susceptibility testing, diagnostic development, and clinical and laboratory testing applications
This Industry & Science Showcase is a promotional activity and is not approved for continuing education credit. The content of this presentation and opinions expressed by presenters are those of the organizer or presenters and not of ASM.
Download the presentation to explore ATCC's robust collection of whole-genome sequenced priority AMR strains
DownloadPresenters
Victoria Knight-Connoni, PhD
Head of Content Development and Principal Scientist, ATCC
Dr. Knight-Connoni is a Principal Scientist at ATCC where she is curates the catalog of products for use by the scientific community. Her team is responsible for sourcing new items to add to the collection and authenticating and characterizing the biological material. Dr. Knight-Connoni has spent her career in industrial microbiology working at several biotech companies focused on natural product discovery using microbes as the source of products. She has built and characterized microbial strain collections at multiple companies and led in vitro screening teams at Cubist and Indigo for product discovery. Dr. Knight-Connoni holds a doctorate in microbiology from the University of New Hampshire.
Joseph Petrone, PhD
Senior Bioinformatician, Sequencing & Bioinformatics Center, ATCC
Joseph Petrone received his PhD from the University of Florida’s Department of Microbiology and Cell Sciences with a focus in bacterial genomics and metagenomic microbiome analysis. Joseph’s interest in curating authentic genomic databases and developing new bioinformatic software led him to join ATCC in 2023, where he now works as a bioinformatician for the Sequencing and Bioinformatics Center. His current focus is the continual development and curation of the ATCC Genome Portal. In his free time, you will find Joe either caring for his exotic plant collection or modifying and racing cars at the local dragstrip.
Explore our featured resources
Discover the ATCC Genome Portal
The ATCC Genome Portal is a rapidly growing ISO 9001–compliant database of high-quality reference genomes from authenticated microbial strains in the ATCC collection. Through this cloud-based platform, you can easily access and download meticulously curated whole-genome sequences from your browser or our secure API. With high-quality, annotated data at your fingertips, you can confidently perform bioinformatics analyses and make insightful correlations.
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