Chr. Hansen Implements Bioinformatics Suites for Next Generation Genome Sequencing

Pedersen: “We have taken a major leap forward. This platform allows us to understand and improve our strains in a more directed way, including deciphering the mode of action of new strains and ensuring IPR.”

7/5/2011 --- Chr. Hansen has taken a major leap forward through the implementation of the bioinformatics suites from CLC bio and Genostar. “We are proud to announce that our continued focus on genomics and bioinformatics now allows us to carry out complete analysis of next generation sequences in-house. Our pipeline takes advantage of the bioinformatics suites from CLC bio and Genostar, combined with tools developed by our own scientists” says Martin B. Pedersen, Senior Manager, Physiology, Innovation, Chr. Hansen.

“Over the past years we have acquired almost 200 genome sequences of our most important lactic acid bacteria, including most production strains. The genome sequences contain the genetic codes, i.e. genes which define the properties of the strains – and thus the cultures we sell to our customers. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we can extract as much information as possible,” he explains.

“We have taken a major leap forward. This platform allows us to understand and improve our strains in a more directed way, including deciphering the mode of action of new strains and ensuring IPR.”

“We have always had a strategy that the competencies to carry out such central analyses should reside within the company. In line with this, we set up two bioinformatics projects to expand into analysis of next generation sequences (NGS). These projects have now been successfully completed, resulting in a platform that is second-to-none within the industry. Within a matter of hours we can assemble raw NGS data into complete metabolic maps of our strains. This can be used to search for unwanted genes, for instance genes encoding antibiotic resistance, for comparison to other strains, and generation of pan-genomes, i.e. the genetic content of an entire species,” highlights Pedersen.

Besides strong internal collaboration between several departments to develop and optimize the analysis pipeline Chr. Hansen has benefitted from great collaboration with external software
suppliers:

“We are using CLC bio for assembly of the NGS data and Metabolic Pathway Builder & KoriBlast from Genostar for the more gene-oriented analyses such as gene-finding, annotation, comparative genomics and metabolic mapping,” explains Chr. Hansen’s expert.

Seamless connection between the CLC bio and Genostar platforms offers the benefit of using both platforms in different stages of the NGS analysis pipeline.

Lasse Görlitz, Director of Communications at CLC bio, adds: “With the increase in organizations working with NGS, we are most happy to see our enterprise platform becoming an integral part of analysis pipelines in market-leading organizations like Chr. Hansen. Partnering with specialists like Genostar to provide complete NGS analysis workflows brings excellent value to our customers."

Adrienne Kennard, Chief Operating Officer at Genostar states: “We are very pleased to be a strategic partner for Chr. Hansen’s genomics research and NGS data analysis pipeline. Integrated tools for characterizing and comparing microbial strains are a key feature of the Genostar’s Metabolic Pathway Builder platform and fit perfectly with Chr. Hansen’s innovative strain development programs.”