The World Health Organization (WHO) and affiliates have announced a selection of 10 initiatives that will each receive close to USD $2 million in funding to enhance pathogen genomic surveillance capabilities.
This funding initiative, established by the International Pathogen Surveillance Network (IPSN), aims to assist partners in low- and middle-income regions in advancing their abilities in genomic pathogen analysis. This science involves decoding the genetic makeup of viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens, allowing researchers to assess transmission dynamics and potential severity. Such insights enable scientists and health officials to monitor and address infectious disease risks, aid in vaccine and treatment development, and empower nations with swift decision-making capabilities.
The grant is facilitated by the United Nations Foundation with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Wellcome.
“The IPSN’s catalytic fund holds significant promise to broaden access to pathogen genomic surveillance. The first round of grants already highlights its potential,” remarked Sara Hersey, Director of Collaborative Intelligence at the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence. “We’re excited to endorse these efforts, integral to mitigating pandemics and epidemics globally.”
Manisha Bhinge, Vice President of the Health Initiative at The Rockefeller Foundation noted, “The grant recipients will enhance the effectiveness of genomic surveillance in under-resourced settings and explore applications like wastewater monitoring. With pandemics and epidemics posing ongoing risks, exacerbated by climate change, it’s critical to provide equitable access to these essential tools to safeguard lives in vulnerable areas.”
For instance, the American University of Beirut will employ wastewater surveillance to analyze disease transmission within refugee populations, ensuring timely care and support in migratory settings. Meanwhile, the Pasteur Institute of Laos will utilize funds to innovate tracking methods for avian flu in live-bird markets, a crucial but often overlooked area.
Titus Divala, Interim Head of Epidemics and Epidemiology at Wellcome, highlighted, “To shield at-risk groups from disease impacts, we must first comprehend pathogen dissemination, evolution, and pathology. These projects, developed with local priorities, will lend new insights, informing effective interventions.”
In Brazil, the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro plans to develop an open-source bioinformatics solution for offline analyses, piloting it in Latin America with global application potential, especially in resource-limited regions.
The importance of genomic surveillance has been underscored by SARS-CoV-2 and regional outbreaks, highlighting the need for all countries to access such tools. “Catalytic investments by the IPSN will generate critical data and methodologies to facilitate necessary scaling in low- and middle-income countries,” said Simon Harris from the Gates Foundation.
These grant recipients were announced at the IPSN Global Partners Forum, held in Bangkok, Thailand, on November 21-22. The forum was co-hosted by the WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regional Offices, along with the Centre for Pathogen Genomics at the Doherty Institute in Australia.
A subsequent round of grants will be made available to IPSN members in 2025.
The IPSN represents a new consortium of genomic pathogenesis experts organized by the WHO Pandemic Hub, striving to expedite pathogen genomics deployment for improved health policy-making. The network’s vision is a globally egalitarian approach to genomic sequencing as part of public health surveillance efforts.
The programme is part of the WHO Health Emergencies Initiative, aimed at fostering global collaboration across sectors to anticipate pandemic threats with better data, enhanced analysis capabilities, and improved decision-making tools. Born out of the Covid-19 experience and backed by the German government, the WHO Pandemic Hub was launched in Berlin in September 2021.
The Doherty Institute’s Centre for Pathogen Genomics, University of Melbourne, serves as a hub for academic collaboration and training in translational research and genomic surveillance technologies focused on the Asia-Pacific region. The team comprises field-leading experts with substantial experience using cutting-edge technology to confront diseases of national and global concern.
Here is a complete list of the first IPSN catalytic fund beneficiaries:
– *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 framework for decentralized real-time pathogen surveillance”
– *National Public Health Laboratory (Cameroon)*: “Integrating malaria surveillance into genomic platforms”
– *Evangelical University of Africa (DRC)*: “Enhancing genomic surveillance data with MinION sequencer”
– *Noguchi Memorial Institute, University of Ghana*: “Monitoring pathogens and antimicrobial resistance with air samples”
– *Ashoka University, India*: “Linking environmental to clinical AMR via DNA barcoding”
– *Pasteur Institute of Laos*: “Genomic surveillance of avian influenza in live-bird markets”
– *American University of Beirut (Lebanon)*: “Wastewater surveillance of viral diarrheal diseases”
– *Rwanda Biomedical Centre*: “One Health genomic surveillance for viral fevers”
– *Medical Research Institute Colombo (Sri Lanka)*: “Applying genomics to monitor foodborne disease risk”