Detection Of Adventitious Viruses Using Transcriptome NGS

By Christine Mitchell, Brian Baier, Joel Coble, and Heather Malicki

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) transcriptome methods offer a powerful, animal-free approach to detecting adventitious viruses in cell banks without prior knowledge of the contaminants present. Updated regulatory guidance encourages NGS to replace traditional in vivo assays, enhancing both the breadth and sensitivity of viral detection.

Because all viruses utilize an mRNA stage during active infection, analyzing total mRNA transcripts allows for the simultaneous detection of diverse RNA and DNA viruses, even at low-level contamination within a dense background of cellular RNA. Aligning filtered sequence data against comprehensive viral reference databases provides high specificity, reliably identifying distinct viral families down to the species level.

Explore the workflow validation data and see how automated pipelines ensure data integrity and regulatory compliance.