ByLeezel TanglaoCBS NewsJune 5, 2014, 6:14 PM
Breakthrough DNA test finds cause of boy's rare illness
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DeRisi along with Dr. Charles Chiu, a professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF, obtained samples of the teen's blood and cerebrospinal fluid. They ran the samples through DNA testing using the new NGS techniques, and within 48 hours they were able to identify the bacterium Leptospira santarosai, a pathogen found in the Caribbean.
Several months before he was hospitalized, the teen had gone on a trip to Puerto Rico, where he may have encountered the bacteria.
Once the pathogen was identified, doctors were able to put in place a plan to fight the bacteria and treat the teen's encephalitis, and he recovered.
"This diagnosis could not have been made without this next-generation sequencing," Chiu told CBS News...
