Antimicrobial resistance is quietly becoming one of the most serious public health problems in Canada. According to a 2026 report from the Council of Canadian Academies, an estimated one in four bacterial infections in Canada are resistant to first-line drugs, directly causing approximately 5,400 deaths each year.

A key part of the problem is speed. Determining whether a bacterium is resistant to antibiotics currently requires growing it in a lab — a process that can take days. During that time, patients may receive ineffective treatments while clinicians wait for results.

Vancouver-based BugSeq is working to shorten that window. The company builds an automated, cloud-based bioinformatics platform that helps clinical and public health laboratories rapidly identify pathogens and predict antimicrobial resistance directly from DNA sequencing data. At the centre of the platform is BugAMR, a machine learning-powered system for antimicrobial resistance prediction.

With support from Genome BC, BugSeq is taking the next step: researchers will analyze nearly 100,000 bacterial genomes, identify new resistance markers, and use AI to rapidly scan scientific literature for newly discovered markers that haven't yet made it into public databases. The enhanced system will be validated through computational testing and real-world clinical studies with partners including Vancouver Coastal Health, Providence Health Care, and Johns Hopkins University.

"By refining our machine-learning analytics with Genome BC's support, we can dramatically scale our database and enhance the performance of our tools," said Nick Gauthier, head of scientific affairs at BugSeq. "This collaboration bridges the gap between cutting-edge genomic research and real-world clinical utility, ultimately allowing us to put faster, life-saving insights directly into the hands of healthcare providers when every hour counts."

BugSeq is also involved in a separate Genome BC and Genome Canada-supported initiative deploying a metagenomic sequencing workflow across public health laboratories in Canada. Unlike conventional diagnostic tests, which require clinicians to know which pathogen to target in advance, the approach is pathogen-agnostic — strengthening Canada's ability to detect respiratory diseases and emerging variants without needing to anticipate the specific threat.