NextGenAMR — a product by Vanguard Biotech Systems
Research & surveillance
VBS is developing NextGenAMR, designed to organise whole-genome-sequencing workflows within a versioned scope, preserve provenance, structure AMR-related evidence and produce reviewable results. For research and surveillance, the intended value is reproducibility, consistency between runs, traceability, versioning and structured reporting.
In development · Not for clinical use
In development. The E. coli engine is being built and will be evaluated internally under a pre-specified protocol. An independent external validation protocol has been drafted. No performance results have been published. Not for clinical use.
Current status
It is not presented as an autonomous diagnosis or treatment-decision system. A research or surveillance collaboration would not be a clinical licence or an authorisation for care use.
Within a published scope
NextGenAMR's first species is Escherichia coli, in development, with a candidate first panel of ampicillin, ciprofloxacin, cefotaxime, ceftazidime and gentamicin, subject to evaluation. Carbapenems: genotypic evidence only, with no model probability. Klebsiella pneumoniae is the next planned species. No species is yet released for use.
Why reproducible, controlled execution helps
Research and surveillance workflows often face avoidable sources of divergence. NextGenAMR is designed to help study and organise these — it does not claim existing tools or practices are inadequate.
- Divergence between component and database versions
- Manual handoffs between steps
- Heterogeneous, hard-to-compare outputs
- Difficulty reconstructing exactly how a run was produced
- Inconsistent reporting between analyses
Capabilities for research & surveillance
Each capability carries one status: Built (internal R&D) · In development · Designed · Planned · Not claimed. Nothing here is presented as more mature than it is.
- Per-batch provenanceBuilt (internal R&D)
Every processing batch carries a write-once record of what produced it. Model packages and result records will join the same chain once they exist.
- Quality-control and species checksBuilt (internal R&D)
Unsupported inputs are rejected or flagged, with reason codes.
- Probability of resistanceDesigned
By design: for each antibiotic in the predictive panel, a probability of resistance with explicit uncertainty — or an abstention. Never a categorical S/I/R result.
- Systems & platform integrationNot claimed
No integration with sequencing platforms, storage, APIs or LIMS is offered; it would be assessed per project.
Ways to collaborate
Possibilities subject to an evaluation of fit, scope, data, resources, approvals and agreement.
A research group can study methodological reproducibility or compare configurations.
Start the conversation →A public-health body can explore structuring a surveillance workflow or its reporting.
Start the conversation →A sequencing centre can study input compatibility, handoff and integration feasibility.
Start the conversation →A consortium can evaluate a VBS contribution to a bioinformatics, provenance or AMR work package.
Start the conversation →A validation team can discuss protocols, cohorts, reference standards, endpoints, discordances and abstentions.
Start the conversation →
What VBS would contribute
What VBS would contribute
- The methodology and the engine under development
- Provenance and versioning practices
- Experience designing evaluation protocols
NextGenAMR is in development; no analysis service, interface or platform access is offered today.
What a collaborator normally brings
Depending on the project — not universal requirements.
- A defined research or project question
- Scientific and technical leads
- Legitimately accessible data, with provenance and quality information
- A reference standard when applicable
- Ethical or institutional approvals and transfer agreements
- Success criteria and the ability to review results
Possible outcomes
Deliverable-shaped possibilities — not promised results, publications, metrics or deployments.
- A defined protocol
- A feasibility assessment
- A dataset characterisation
- A reproducible analysis
- A provenance package
- An integration feasibility assessment
- A reporting template
- A methodological result
- A technical contribution to a consortium
- A defined next phase
Start the conversation
Identify a collaboration modality and tell us about your project. Do not send sensitive data.