GISAID
Encyclopedia
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....
of scientists who actively promote the international sharing of all influenza
Influenza
Influenza, commonly referred to as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by RNA viruses of the family Orthomyxoviridae , that affects birds and mammals...
type virus sequences, related clinical and epidemiological data associated with human isolates, and geographic and species-specific data associated with avian and other animal isolates.
GISAID is providing a publicly accessible platform including the EpiFlu database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
that is free of charge. The H1N1
H1N1
'Influenza A virus is a subtype of influenza A virus and was the most common cause of human influenza in 2009. Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans and cause a small fraction of all influenza-like illness and a small fraction of all seasonal influenza. H1N1 strains caused a few percent of...
influenza strain which caused the 2009 flu pandemic
2009 flu pandemic
The 2009 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the second of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus , albeit in a new version...
, although not an avian influenza, is explicitly included.
GISAID came to life on 2006-08-24 as the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data by a group of leading medical researchers from around the world to improve the sharing of influenza data and was announced in a letter published in the journal Nature signed by over 70 leading scientists including seven Nobel laureates.
Its users are requested to register and agree that they share their own data, credit the use of others' data, analyze findings jointly and publish results collaboratively, and maintain common access to technology derived from the data so that it can be used not only for research but for development of products such as diagnostics and vaccines. The data will be available immediately to all who sign on to use the database under the terms that they will acknowledge the source of the data and endeavor to work with those that provide the data.
Goals
The Initiative has earned widespread international support around the goal of better understanding the spread and evolutionEvolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
of the influenza virus, its transmissibility
Transmissibility
Transmissibility may have several meanings:* Transmissibility * Transmissibility * Transmissibility , fluid flow in porous media* Transmissibility * Transmissibility...
and pathogenicity. With this goal in mind, the Initiative determined that scientists from different fields of expertise needed full access to comprehensive genetic sequencing
DNA sequencing
DNA sequencing includes several methods and technologies that are used for determining the order of the nucleotide bases—adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine—in a molecule of DNA....
, clinical and epidemiological data, as well as analysis from both human and animal isolates in order to better understand the virus and its potential mutation
Mutation
In molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...
to a pandemic
Pandemic
A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic...
pathogen
Pathogen
A pathogen gignomai "I give birth to") or infectious agent — colloquially, a germ — is a microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus that causes disease in its animal or plant host...
. The Initiative aims to provide developing countries with better access to scientific research and the development of potential pandemic flu vaccines to lessen its dependence on foreign aid. It is already hailed as a model for future initiatives.
Greater transparency and more timely sharing of sequence data has been a goal of many researchers and stakeholders alike. The GISAID platform spans national borders and scientific disciplines, with leaders in the fields of veterinary medicine
Veterinary medicine
Veterinary Medicine is the branch of science that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals...
, human medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, bioinformatics
Bioinformatics
Bioinformatics is the application of computer science and information technology to the field of biology and medicine. Bioinformatics deals with algorithms, databases and information systems, web technologies, artificial intelligence and soft computing, information and computation theory, software...
, epidemiology
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
and intellectual property
Intellectual property
Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
. This cross-disciplinary effort provides new means to communicate and share information, as each discipline has distinct interests but also shares similar goals. The Initiative came together to work around restrictions, which have previously prevented specifically the sharing of information on avian influenza (a.k.a. bird flu), with the hope that more shared information will help researchers understand how viruses spread, evolve, and potentially become pandemic, anticipating that its EpiFlu database will be a substantial improvement over previously available databases, by promoting influenza data to becoming available more quickly and to a wider audience than has been possible in the past.
History
The Foundation was initially funded by Peter Bogner—a strategic advisor and international broadcasting executive—who serves as its founder and principal facilitator. Bogner has been directing the build-up of this platform by bringing together the world's leading scientists and stakeholders who are actively committed to accelerating understanding of this potential human pandemic by rapidly sharing scientific data and results.On 2006-01-28 Bogner met with US Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoff
Michael Chertoff was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush and co-author of the USA PATRIOT Act. He previously served as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as a federal prosecutor, and as assistant U.S. Attorney...
at the World Economic Forum
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva, best known for its annual meeting in Davos, a mountain resort in Graubünden, in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland....
in Davos
Davos
Davos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and was told about the US Government's preparedness concept on dealing with the potential of a flu pandemic. Concerns about a pandemic scenario heightened. A subsequent public outcry by Italian veterinary researcher Ilaria Capua of the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie outside of Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, complaining about the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
's sharing practices, eventually led to a dialogue with Bogner and convinced researchers around the world to unite for the creation of GISAID.
Since the inception of the Initiative, Bogner announced his plans to transition out of a day-to-day role as the Chief Executive of The Bogner Organization, to allow him to devote more time to working with the GISAID Foundation as its director.
On 2006-11-20, the Initiative received the endorsement of both The Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences
Academy of Medical Sciences
The Academy of Medical Sciences is the United Kingdom's national academy of medical sciences. It was established in 1998 on the recommendation of a group that was chaired by Michael Atiyah. Its president is John Irving Bell....
.
On 2006-12-19, GISAID signed a cooperation agreement with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
The Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics is an academic not-for-profit foundation which federates bioinformatics activities throughout Switzerland...
, which leads a Swiss consortium to manage the GISAID Database on influenza virus strains. Under this agreement, the Geneva based institute is to provide services for the secure storage and analysis of genetic, epidemiological and clinical data.
On 2007-03-28, Siti Fadilah, Indonesia’s Minister of Health, announced the launch of the GISAID Database following a high-level WHO meeting in Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
on Responsible Practices for Sharing Avian Influenza Viruses.
On 2007-04-16, the Indonesian Academy of Sciences reaffirmed its endorsement of GISAID stating it shares the same ideals regarding free exchange and responsible sharing of information of avian influenza and emerging infectious diseases.
On 2007-04-17, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data for “it promotes one of the key values in scientific research: collaboration and integration between scientists in order to achieve improved outcomes for the
benefit of human and animal health.”
On 2010-04-20, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany announced during the IMCAPI ministerial conference in Hanoi that its Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection BMELV signed a cooperation agreement with GISAID to become the long-term host of its platform and EpiFlu database.
Foundation
The GISAID Foundation is a nonprofit, non-stock corporation incorporated in the District of Columbia, USA, organized and operated exclusively for charitable, scientific and educational purposes within the meaning of the United States Internal Revenue Code.The Foundation provides for several organizational bodies that operate independently of each other, aimed to provide for a fair and transparent, as well as a verifiable and unbiased mechanism in place to govern and to take measures to guard against bias in decision-making. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees, charged with overseeing the business affairs, is expected to minimize potential conflicts of interest concerning the funding sources; its Advisory Board made up of senior scientist is charged to provide resolution concerning any breach in access to the platform or its data; its Scientific Advisory Council is responsible for providing scientific oversight of the initiative; its Database Technical Committee represents the user community and interacts with GISAID’s database developer team to improve in the functional capabilities of the EpiFlu Database.
Intellectual property
A difficulty that GISAID's Data Access Agreement attempts to address is that many researchers fear sharing of influenza sequence data could facilitate its misappropriation through intellectual property claims by the vaccine industry and others, hindering access to vaccines and other items in developing countries, either through high costs or by preventing technology transferTechnology transfer
Technology Transfer, also called Transfer of Technology and Technology Commercialisation, is the process of skill transferring, knowledge, technologies, methods of manufacturing, samples of manufacturing and facilities among governments or universities and other institutions to ensure that...
. While most public interest experts agree with GISAID that influenza sequence data should be made public, and this is the subject of agreement by many researchers, some provide the information only after filing patent claims while others have said that access to it should be only on the condition that no patents or other intellectual property claims are filed. GISAID's Data Access Agreement addresses this directly to promote sharing data. GISAID's procedures additionally suggest that those who access the EpiFlu database consult the countries of origin of genetic sequences and the researchers who discovered the sequences.