Breakthrough in Respiratory Syncytial Virus Genome Sequencing

Researchers at the University of Washington Medical Center have made significant strides in developing a novel bioinformatic pipeline for high-throughput, cost-effective sequencing of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) genomes. The new approach, an adapted viral genome tiling amplicon panel (UW-ARTIC), has been shown to recover high-quality genomes with 95% completeness and 500x and 1000x average depth for whole genome and fusion gene, respectively. The assay has demonstrated high accuracy when compared to traditional sequencing methods and has been used to generate US Food and Drug Administration-reportable data for clinical trials of RSV antiviral products.

Key Takeaways:

• The UW-ARTIC RSV panel was adapted to develop a custom bioinformatic pipeline for high-throughput, cost-effective sequencing of both RSV-A and RSV-B subgroups.
• The panel demonstrated high performance characteristics, including assay sensitivity, specificity, breadth of genome recovery, accuracy, and precision, using contrived and remnant clinical specimens.
• The assay showed high accuracy when compared to Sanger, shotgun metagenomic, and hybridization capture-based sequencing methods.
• The UW-ARTIC RSV panel has been used to generate US Food and Drug Administration-reportable data for clinical trials of RSV antiviral products, with robust performance in global samples from as recently as the 2023/2024 season.
• The research has been peer-reviewed and published in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.
• The UW-ARTIC RSV panel has utility for cost-effective RSV genome recovery in public health, clinical, and research applications.
• Continued genomic surveillance and future updates to primers will be essential for continued recovery of genomes as RSV continues to evolve.

Statistics:

• The UW-ARTIC RSV panel recovered high-quality genomes with 95% completeness.
• The average depth for whole genome sequencing was 500x, while the average depth for fusion gene sequencing was 1000x.
• The assay demonstrated high accuracy when compared to traditional sequencing methods (98.5%).
• The UW-ARTIC RSV panel has been used to generate US Food and Drug Administration-reportable data for clinical trials of RSV antiviral products.
• Global samples from as recently as the 2023/2024 season showed robust performance.

Sources:

• Clinical Performance Evaluation of a Tiling Amplicon Panel for Whole-Genome Sequencing of Respiratory Syncytial Virus. The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, 2025;27(9):819-831.
• University of Washington Medical Center
• Elsevier Science Inc, Ste 800, 230 Park Ave, New York, NY 10169, USA.