The past two months have been quite imtense: heavy workload with genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Beyond my amazing collaborators @YaleSPH, I’d like to give a shout-out to those leading key initiatives that make my work possible: GISAID, nextstrain, PANGO and SPHERES

Research groups worldwide have been generating and openly sharing genomic data. http://gisaid.org  is the main database that receives, curates, and now provides us access to nearly 10,000+ genomes submitted daily.

I thank the @GISAID team for their help in this endeavour.

There would be no real-time genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 without @nextstrain. This is the main tool I use to analyse data generated by my colleagues from @NathanGrubaugh lab. Nextstrain is developed and maintained by a team of researchers led by @trvrb and @richardneher.

B.1.1.7... P.1... if you’ve seen these terms before, you know PANGO. It’s a dynamic SARS-CoV-2 nomenclature that evolves as the virus evolve. It’s my favourite system, maintained by @AineToole @viralverity @DrEmilyScher and team: thank you for keeping track of so many variants

Conducting cost-effective genomic surveillance in a large country like the US is challenging. Without coordination, nearly impossible. SPHERES is an essential initiative coordinated by @dmaccannell, from @CDC_AMD, who provides weekly updates and connect researchers across the US.

Read more about the initiatives that helps us understand the national and international spread and evolution of the coronavirus causing #COVID19

- http://gisaid.org 
- http://nextstrain.org 
- http://cov-lineages.org 
- http://cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/spheres.html

I hope this year I can work more closely together with you all, providing helpful suggestions as a user of your platforms.

Genomic surveillance must be a priority, and those collective efforts are essential to show the importance of pathogen genomics for public health.