General Automation Lab Technologies and CosmosID Launch Microbiome Challenge Program

General Automation Lab Technologies (GALT) and CosmosID today announced the launch of a new scientific challenge program to award a complete microbiome characterization workflow to one entrant. The winner's sample will be processed using GALT's Prospectortm system for high-throughput isolation and cultivation and then sequenced and analyzed with CosmosID's metagenomic services pipeline.

"Rapidly growing interest in studying complex microbiome communities ? not just which strains are present, but also how they interact with each other ? has spurred the much-needed development of new technologies to enable this important research," said Peter Christey, CEO of GALT. "We are delighted to team up with CosmosID to combine our innovative approaches and to encourage the community to submit creative ideas for high-throughput microbiome projects that may not have been feasible until now."

Manoj Dadlani, CEO of CosmosID, commented: "Scientific competitions have a long and successful history of inspiring exciting new approaches, and we believe this program will do the same for the microbiome field. We are pleased to be working closely with our colleagues at GALT to foster advances in the cultivation and analysis of metagenomic or microbiome samples."

The GALT Prospector System is a novel, high-throughput platform for cultivating microbial isolates from complex microbiome samples. It uses microfabricated arrays containing thousands of nanoscale isolation and cultivation chambers that allow individual microbes to self-sort and grow into single-strain microcolonies. The CosmosID platform uses proprietary sequence analysis algorithms to accurately profile all microorganisms in a metagenomic sample employing next-generation DNA sequencing. It can be used for rapid identification of microorganisms for molecular diagnostics, clinical trials, public health, food safety, agriculture, and environmental applications.

Researchers may enter the challenge program by submitting a short abstract proposing a project that would make use of the GALT and CosmosID technologies. Abstract submission opens on October 30, 2019 and closes at midnight PST on November 30, 2019. A committee from GALT and CosmosID will select the winning abstract based on research creativity, scientific impact, and innovation. For full contest details and terms, please visit: www.galt-inc.com/2019-scientific-challenge.

More information about offerings from GALT and CosmosID will be available at the Microbiome & Probiotics conference series taking place October 29-30 in San Diego at the Paradise Point Resort & Spa.

Attendees of the conference can check out these talks:

Tuesday, October 29, at 12:20 pm in the Sunset Pavilion
Manoj Dadlani, CosmosID
Accelerating Microbiome Discoveries Using Shotgun Sequencing and Strain-Level Bioinformatics

Wednesday, October 30, at 12:25 pm in the Sunset Pavilion
Peter Christey, GALT
A New Era in Microbiome Research: The Prospectortm High-throughput Microbial Cultivation System

About CosmosID

CosmosID®, based in Rockville, Maryland, is a genomics big data company focused on rapid identification of microorganisms for molecular diagnostics, clinical trials, public health, food safety, agriculture, and environmental applications. The CosmosID platform uses proprietary sequence analysis algorithms to accurately profile all microorganisms in a metagenomic sample employing next-generation DNA sequencing. CosmosID was founded in 2008 by Dr. Rita Colwell, former director of the National Science Foundation and currently Distinguished University Professor at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. To learn more please visit www.cosmosid.com.

About GALT

General Automation Lab Technologies (GALT), a privately held company based in Silicon Valley, is a leading developer of next-generation cultivation platforms for microbiome research and microbial product development, addressing high-impact markets including human health, agriculture, environmental science, and microbial products for industrial use. Until now, advances in these areas have been limited by century-old tools that do not work with many microbes. GALT's Prospector platform streamlines and automates the most difficult and labor-intensive aspects of microbiology to enable scalable screening, cultivation, and analysis of microorganisms in complex, real-world samples. The company's high-throughput platform provides a living, high-resolution snapshot of complex samples and will allow scientists in academia and industry to understand and harness the true diversity of microbial life, opening up new opportunities for microbial product development.