Informatics for Genomics-informed Surveillance of RNA Viruses

NLM Informatics and Data Science Lecture Series Genomics-informed surveillance is now recognized as an important extension to the monitoring of rapidly evolving pathogens. Next generation sequencing has the ability to produce large amounts of data for tracking viruses of public health importance. Biomedical informatics approaches are able to facilitate the translation of these data into information for public health surveillance. Thus, epidemiologists can identify new outbreaks or monitor the course of a known epidemic by leveraging pathogen sequences (and corresponding metadata) generated from the clinical specimens of sick patients. In this presentation, Dr. Scotch will discuss NLM-funded projects related to the development and evaluation of a surveillance system that uses virus sequences to study the evolution, spread, and population size of viruses across geographic areas. This includes the development of a pipeline for virus phylogeography and spread and its utilization as part of a newly funded project on metagenomics of wastewater for outbreak detection and epidemic monitoring including seasonal influenza. This work aims to highlight the value of using biomedical informatics to translate viral genetic data into valuable information for surveillance of both known and novel viruses. Brief Bio: Matthew Scotch is Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Arizona State University (ASU). He is also Assistant Director of ASU ’ s Biodesign Center for Environmental H...
Source: Videocast - All Events - Category: General Medicine Tags: Upcoming Events Source Type: video