"Enterococci are best known as antibiotic resistant opportunistic pathogens that are commonly recovered from patients who have received multiple courses of antibiotics and have been hospitalized for prolonged periods. These organisms were well established as a cause of endocarditis and urinary tract infections in the early 1900s, and members of the species Enterococcus faecalis were known to be a common cause of nosocomial infections by the early 1980s. The emergence of enterococci with resistance to vancomycin, seen predominantly in the species E. faecium, has been followed by an increase in the frequency with which this species is recovered. Of all enterococcal species, E. faecium, because it is often resistant to both vancomycin and ampicillin, is the most difficult to treat."

Murray, B. E., "Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcal Infections", The New England Journal of Medicine, March 9, 2000, v. 342(10):710-21.

The Enterococcus faecium genome was sequenced in one day by the Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute. It is currently being finished by the Baylor College of Medicine's Human Genome Sequencing Center and the University of Texas-Houston Center for the Study for Emerging and Re-emerging Pathogens (CSERP).

References for Enterococcus faecium DO Strain
(also referred to in publications as TX0016 and TEX16)

Arduino, R.C., Murray, B. E., Rakita, R.M., 1994. "Roles of antibodies and complement in phagocytic killing of enterococci", Infect. Immun., 62:987-93.

Arduino, R.C., Jacques-Palaz, K., Murray, B. E., Rakita, R.M., 1994. "Resistance of Enterococcus faecium to neutrophil-mediated phagocytosis", Infect. Immun., 62:5587-94.