Pattern Genomics, in collaboration with CDC and Focus Diagnostics, had a busy year in infectious disease assay design.  The company continued its collaboration with CDC on molecular assays for enteric pathogens with a trio of publications at IMMEM 2016 and ASM 2016.  The IMMEM co-publications with CDC featured a simple, single-plex E. coli O157:H7-specific assay as well as the first PCR assay that can distinguish E. albertii and E. fergusonii from the closely-related species E. coli.  At ASM, CDC and Pattern Genomics introduced the first simple qPCR assay that can detect the emerging shigella toxin 2e and 2f (stx2e and stx2f) variants as well as all older forms of the toxin gene.  Finally, at the Clinical Virology Symposium (CVS) 2016, Focus Diagnostics presented a 9-pathogen respiratory panel with 3 sub-kits detecting 3 pathogens each.  Pattern Genomics designed the sub-kit that detects all species of adenovirus, metapneumovirus, and parainfluenza virus in a single, multiplexed qPCR reaction.  This kit was the first practical test of Pattern Genomics’ latest version of its Daydreamer platform, which is now capable of automatically inserting degenerate bases into primer and probe designs.  As demonstrated in the CVS presentation, this capability is key for designing simple and accurate molecular viral diagnostic tests.