Drs. Lee Harrison and Alex Sundermann Join Next Gen Diagnostics Advisory Team to Advance Hospital-Based Infection Prevention

National Leaders in Hospital Genomic Surveillance Join in Key Advisory Roles as NGD Prepares to Deploy Real-Time Sequencing-Based Detection of Transmission in Hospitals

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS / ACCESS Newswire / June 17, 2025 / Next Gen Diagnostics (NGD) today announced that Dr. Lee Harrison, Professor of Epidemiology and Director of the Center for Genomic Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), has agreed to chair NGD's Infection Prevention Advisory Board, and that Dr. Alex Sundermann, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Pitt and a widely recognized expert in genomic outbreak detection, has accepted a role as NGD's Lead Consultant for Infection Prevention Services.

NGD offers a low-cost automated sequencing and bioinformatic analysis service to bring practical, implementable sequence-based transmission detection to hospital systems. The system automatically generates actionable reports to Infection Prevention teams, delivered via an intuitive user interface, who can focus on the implementation of actions curtailing further transmission, reducing average length of stay while improving patient experience and medical outcome. A recent publication⁽¹⁾ of Drs. Harrison and Sundermann, the culmination of a series, has documented the resulting savings in cost, spurring consideration of genomic surveillance by a widening set of hospital systems in the United States.

"I believe that genomic surveillance will eventually become standard practice in American healthcare, which we have shown to be effective in preventing infections and saving money," noted Dr. Harrison. "For hospitals without in-house whole genome sequencing or bioinformatics capability, commercially available solutions can provide a practical path to implementation. By bringing rapid, low-cost sequencing directly into hospitals, we have shown that we can catch transmission events that would otherwise go unnoticed, and pinpoint causes to effectively guide prevention of further spread."

"We've seen firsthand that traditional infection prevention methods often miss key outbreaks," added Dr. Sundermann.

"It is widely appreciated that no one in the United States has had greater impact on the growing awareness that WGS can transform infection control than Lee and Alex," said Dr. Paul A. Rhodes, NGD founder and CEO. "Their expertise in genomic epidemiology and deep understanding of clinical workflows makes them ideal partners as we deliver WGS transmission detection results directly to infection prevention teams. Their involvement is very timely as we deploy our first systems to use the power of WGS to reduce transmission of infection in hospitals."

NGD offers a fully integrated, end-to-end WGS and bioinformatics service combining in-hospital sequencing automation with proprietary bioinformatic analysis delivered in an intuitive dashboard, all at less cost per sample than a PCR panel.

About Next Gen Diagnostics

Next Gen Diagnostics, founded in 2017, offers an integrated end-to-end sequencing system and bioinformatics service for transmission detection. The proprietary NGD100 system can process 48 samples at once, with very low hands-on time and skill, while fully integrating automated bioinformatics and actionable report generation, all at the low cost per sample needed for broad adoption.

Based in the U.S., NGD has a laboratory in Cambridge, MA, with offices in Boston and in Cambridge, U.K.

For press inquiries, please contact: press@nextgen-dx.com.

⁽¹⁾ Sundermann et al (2025) Real-Time Genomic Surveillance for Enhanced Healthcare Outbreak Detection and Control: Clinical and Economic Impact. Clinical Infectious Disease.

SOURCE: Next Gen Diagnostics