University of Münster

Founded in 1780, the WWU Münster is the third largest university in Germany. In January 2011 an Ion Torrent Personal Genome machine was installed at WWU, thereby making it one of the first five institutions to install a platform this kind worldwide. The associated university hospital ‘Universitätsklinikum Münster’ (UKM) serves a large urban and rural catchment area and is the referral centre for tertiary care in the region.

Main tasks

Analysis by whole genome sequencing of the population structure and epidemiology of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in hospitals of the Münsterland region, applications and evaluation of three NGS platforms and optical mapping, Ion Torrent sequencing service.

Relevant publications

Grundmann, Hajo and Aanensen, David M. and van den Wijngaard, Cees C. and Spratt, Brian G. and Harmsen, Dag and Friedrich, Alexander W. and , European Staphylococcal Reference Laboratory Working Group Geographic distribution of Staphylococcus aureus causing invasive infections in Europe: a molecular-epidemiological analysis. PLoS Med 2010 7 (1) : e1000215. [pmid]
Mellmann, A. and Harmsen, D. and Cummings, C. A. and Zentz, E. B. and Leopold, S. R. and Rico, A. and Prior, K. and Szczepanowski, R. and Ji, Y. and Zhang, W. and McLaughlin, S. F. and Henkhaus, J. K. and Leopold, B. and Bielaszewska, M. and Prager, R. and Brzoska, P. M. and Moore, R. L. and Guenther, S. and Rothberg, J. M. and Karch, H. Prospective genomic characterization of the German enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O104:H4 outbreak by rapid next generation sequencing technology PLoS ONE 2011 6 (7) : e22751. [pmid]
Mellmann, Alexander and Friedrich, Alexander W. and Rosenkötter, Nicole and Rothgänger, Jörg and Karch, Helge and Reintjes, Ralf and Harmsen, Dag Automated DNA sequence-based early warning system for the detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus outbreaks. PLoS Med 2006 3 (3) : e33. [pmid]

Contact

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. Dag Harmsen
Head of Research

Zentrum für Zahn-, Mund- und Kieferheilkunde
Poliklinik für Parodontologie
Universitätsklinikum Münster

Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, Gebäude W 30
Waldeyerstrasse 30
48149 Münster, Germany

Phone: +49 (251) 83-47059
Fax: +49 (251) 83-47134
Email
Website

Team

Dag Harmsen

Frank Krux

Anja Schultes

Alexander Mellmann