As we wrap up the year that had its own fair challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic, we take pride in the tremendous work done by PHA4GE members. PHA4GE’s first open meeting held earlier in the year showcased the consortium’s Working Groups’ activities towards strengthening bioinformatics for public health. The development and increased uptake among public health institutes globally of the PHA4GE SARS-CoV-2 metadata specification, is worth mentioning. Through seed funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 14 teams across Africa and southeast Asia are either implementing data standards for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and SARS-CoV-2, or implementing projects in genomics ethics and data sharing.
PHA4GE also engages the wider genomics and public health communities on genomics work through monthly Global Genomics Webinars that are free and open for all to participate. In this current quarter, our members have been actively involved in meetings with partners such as the Africa CDC Pathogen Genomics Initiative, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Annual Meeting and Global Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (GA4GH) 9th Plenary Meeting all with the aim of strengthening public health bioinformatics in low- and middle-income contexts. PHA4GE also partnered with CLIMB-BIG-DATA and the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPIAMR) in running a successful workshop on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
In this edition of the newsletter, an announcement is given on the projects in genomics ethics and data sharing. The Bioinformatics Pipelines and Data Visualizations Working Group give an update on their current activities. Dr. Rosaline Macharia shares her views on bioinformatics training for different personnel in public health. The map in this edition shows our footprint.
We continue to aspire towards One Health goals and strengthen our global partnerships for bioinformatics for public health.
To all our members and partners, enjoy the rest of 2021!
Rangarirai Matima
Web edition:
PDF edition:
If you haven’t done so already, subscribe to receive PHA4GE newsletter via email.
