The World Health Organization (WHO) and partners announced 10 projects that will receive almost US$ 2 million in grants to improve capacities in pathogen genomic surveillance.
The grantees were announced at the IPSN Global Partners Forum held in Bangkok, Thailand, from 21–22 November. The event was co-hosted by the WHO Regional Offices for South-East Asia and the Western Pacific and the Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the Doherty Institute in Australia.
The IPSN is a new global network of pathogen genomic actors, brought together by the WHO Pandemic Hub, to accelerate progress on the deployment of pathogen genomics, and improve public health decision-making. The IPSN envisions a world where every country has equitable access to sustained capacity for genomic sequencing and analytics as part of its public health surveillance system. It sets out to create a mutually supportive global network of genomic surveillance actors that amplifies and accelerates the work of its members to improve access and equity.
Background on the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence
Forming part of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence (the WHO Pandemic Hub), facilitates a global collaboration of partners from multiple sectors that supports countries and stakeholders to address future pandemic and epidemic risks with better access to data, better analytical capacities, and better tools and insights for decision-making. With support from the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the WHO Pandemic Hub was established in September 2021 in Berlin, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which demonstrated weaknesses around the world in how countries detect, monitor and manage public health threats.
Background on the Centre for Pathogen Genomics
The Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne is an academic and training hub that supports new collaboration for translational research, genomics-informed infectious disease surveillance, and capacity building and training across the Asia-Pacific region. The Centre is underpinned by a portfolio of world-leading experts across pathogen genomics, public health, surveillance, bioinformatics, research, and capacity building and training, with years of experience in using cutting-edge technologies to address infectious diseases of national and global importance.
Full list of the first IPSN catalytic grantees:
National Institute for Health Research (Angola) - “Metagenomic surveillance for epidemic prevention in the DRC-Angola cross-border (FEEVIR Project)”
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) - “Development of an offline-capable computational framework for decentralised real-time untargeted pathogen genomic surveillance”
National Public Health Laboratory (Cameroon) - “Integrating surveillance of malaria parasites into the National Public Health Laboratory genomics platform in Cameroon”
Evangelical University of Africa (Democratic Republic of Congo) - “Generating genomic surveillance data of pathogens in Democratic Republic of Congo by extending the Mini-Lab with a Nanopore MinION sequencer”
Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana (Ghana) - “Air Sampling Surveillance for Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring and Pathogens of Public Health Interest”
Ashoka University, International Foundation for Research and Education, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (India) - “Quantitative mapping of environmental to clinical AMR via DNA barcoding”
Pasteur Institute of Laos (Laos) - “Environmental genomic surveillance of avian Influenza A viruses in high-risk live-bird markets in Laos: an innovative sequencing approach”
American University of Beirut (Lebanon) - “Wastewater Genomic Surveillance of Underestimated Viral Diarrheal Diseases among Vulnerable and Refugee Populations in Lebanon”
Rwanda Biomedical Centre (Rwanda) - “Establishing a Rwandan One Health genomic surveillance network for endemic and emerging viral hemorrhagic fevers”
Medical Research Institute Colombo (Sri Lanka) - “Piloting the application of pathogen genomics for public health and surveillance of foodborne disease”
