The AI-powered Global Pathogen Analysis Platform aims to strengthen pandemic preparedness globally. The platform will provide a state-of-the-art, analytical toolkit for analysing genomic pathogen data and will be freely available to users worldwide.
Infectious disease outbreaks are spreading faster than ever, yet the international surveillance that could help us monitor and prevent them remains fragmented.
To help close critical gaps in global infectious disease surveillance, a new international infrastructure is being established at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) with partner nodes at University of Copenhagen, Statens Serum Institut and Imperial College London. The Novo Nordisk Foundation is funding the infrastructure with up to DKK 200 million.
The infrastructure is called the Global Pathogen Analysis Platform (GPAP) and will give scientists and public health authorities worldwide free access to cutting-edge tools for detecting, tracking and analysing infectious diseases with help from advanced bioinformatics and artificial intelligence (AI).
“Fragmented surveillance systems have left the world vulnerable to fast-moving outbreaks of infectious diseases. With the establishment of GPAP, we will get a secure, AI-powered data infrastructure that can deliver valuable support to researchers and public health authorities globally while being independent of commercial interests. The infrastructure will be free to use and specifically designed to meet the needs of low- and middle-income countries that currently lack access to such technology,” says Lene Oddershede, Chief Scientific Officer, Planetary Science & Technology at the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Stopping health threats before they go from local to global
Many infectious diseases spread between humans, animals, and the environment, and tackling them effectively requires an integrated approach. Therefore, GPAP is built on the principle of One Health — the recognition that the health of people is closely connected to the health of animals and the environment.
Building on existing platforms and expertise, GPAP will be designed as a secure online infrastructure that allows for integration of genomic pathogen data with other types of data. Data about different types of pathogens such as virus, bacteria and parasites can be combined with a range of different data sources, for example data on climate, human mobility and food trade.
The possibility of integrating and sharing different types of data on the same platform will help create a more complete understanding of the current and future health threats. This will give us the opportunity to act faster when a potential health threat is detected.
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