探花直播 of Cambridge - Institut Pasteur

System to auto-detect new variants will inform better response to future infectious disease outbreaks

jg533 — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 16:00:35 +0000

探花直播new approach uses samples from infected humans to allow real-time monitoring of pathogens circulating in human populations, and enable vaccine-evading bugs to be quickly and automatically identified. This could inform the development of vaccines that are more effective in preventing disease.

探花直播approach can also quickly detect emerging variants with resistance to antibiotics. This could inform the choice of treatment for people who become infected 鈥� and try to limit the spread of the disease.

It uses genetic sequencing data to provide information on the genetic changes underlying the emergence of new variants. This is important to help understand why different variants spread differently in human populations.

There are very few systems in place to keep watch for emerging variants of infectious diseases, apart from the established COVID and influenza surveillance programmes. 探花直播technique is a major advance on the existing approach to these diseases, which has relied on groups of experts to decide when a circulating bacteria or virus has changed enough to be designated a new variant.

By creating 鈥榝amily trees鈥�, the new approach identifies new variants automatically based on how much a pathogen has changed genetically, and how easily it spreads in the human population 鈥� removing the need to convene experts to do this.聽

It can be used for a broad range of viruses and bacteria and only a small number of samples, taken from infected people, are needed to reveal the variants circulating in a population. This makes it particularly valuable for resource-poor settings.

探花直播report was published in the journal Nature.

鈥淥ur new method provides a way to show, surprisingly quickly, whether there are new transmissible variants of pathogens circulating in populations 鈥� and it can be used for a huge range of bacteria and viruses,鈥� said Dr No茅mie Lefrancq, first author of the report, who carried out the work at the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Genetics.

Lefrancq, who is now based at ETH Zurich, added: 鈥淲e can even use it to start predicting how new variants are going to take over, which means decisions can quickly be made about how to respond.鈥澛�

鈥淥ur method provides a completely objective way of spotting new strains of disease-causing bugs, by analysing their genetics and how they鈥檙e spreading in the population. This means we can rapidly and effectively spot the emergence of new highly transmissible strains,鈥� said Professor Julian Parkhill, a researcher in the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Veterinary Medicine who was involved in the study.

Testing the technique

探花直播researchers used their new technique to analyse samples of Bordetella pertussis, the bacteria that causes whooping cough. Many countries are currently experiencing their worst whooping cough outbreaks of the last 25 years. It immediately identified 3 new variants circulating in the population that had been previously undetected.

鈥� 探花直播novel method proves very timely for the agent of whooping cough, which warrants reinforced surveillance given its current comeback in many countries and the worrying emergence of antimicrobial resistant lineages,鈥� said Professor Sylvain Brisse, Head of the National Reference Center for whooping cough at Institut Pasteur, who provided bioresources and expertise on Bordetella pertussis genomic analyses and epidemiology.

In a second test, they analysed samples of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes Tuberculosis. It showed that 2 variants with resistance to antibiotics are spreading.

鈥� 探花直播approach will quickly show which variants of a pathogen are most worrying in terms of the potential to make people ill. This means a vaccine can be specifically targeted against these variants, to make it as effective as possible,鈥� said Professor Henrik Salje in the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Genetics, senior author of the report.

He added: 鈥淚f we see a rapid expansion of an antibiotic-resistant variant, then we could change the antibiotic that鈥檚 being prescribed to people infected by it, to try and limit the spread of that variant.鈥�

探花直播researchers say this work is an important piece in the larger jigsaw of any public health response to infectious disease.

A constant threat

Bacteria and viruses that cause disease are constantly evolving to be better and faster at spreading between us. During the COVID pandemic, this led to the emergence of new strains: the original Wuhan strain spread rapidly but was later overtaken by other variants, including Omicron, which evolved from the original and were better at spreading. Underlying this evolution are changes in the genetic make-up of the pathogens.

Pathogens evolve through genetic changes that make them better at spreading. Scientists are particularly worried about genetic changes that allow pathogens to evade our immune system and cause disease despite us being vaccinated against them.

鈥淭his work has the potential to become an integral part of infectious disease surveillance systems around the world, and the insights it provides could completely change the way governments respond,鈥� said Salje.

探花直播research was primarily funded by the European Research Council.

Reference: Lefrancq, N et al: 鈥�Learning the fitness dynamics of pathogens from phylogenies.鈥� January 2025, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08309-9
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Researchers have come up with a new way to identify more infectious variants of viruses or bacteria that start spreading in humans 鈥� including those causing flu, COVID, whooping cough and tuberculosis.

探花直播approach will quickly show which variants of a pathogen are most worrying in terms of the potential to make people ill. This means a vaccine can be specifically targeted against these variants, to make it as effective as possible.

Henrik Salje

Milan Krasula on Getty

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright 漏探花直播 of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways 鈥� on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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Focus on COVID-19 deaths in under-65s for better insights into infection rates across populations, say researchers

jg533 — Mon, 02 Nov 2020 09:49:27 +0000

探花直播research, conducted by scientists at the 探花直播 of Cambridge and the Institut Pasteur, was published on 2 November聽in the leading journal Nature. It highlights how large COVID-19 outbreaks in European nursing homes, and the potential for missing deaths in some Asian and South American countries, have skewed COVID-19 death data for older age groups, rendering cross-country comparisons of the scale of the pandemic inaccurate.

探花直播researchers say that reporting of deaths from COVID-19 among those under the age of 65 is likely to be far more reliable, and can therefore give clearer insights into the underlying transmission of the virus and enable better comparisons between countries 鈥� crucial in guiding government strategies to try to get COVID-19 under control.聽

鈥淪imply comparing the total number of deaths across countries can be misleading as a representation of the underlying level of transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Most deaths are in older people, but they are the least comparable across countries,鈥� said Megan O鈥橠riscoll, a PhD researcher in the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Genetics and first author of the paper.

In countries including the UK, Canada and Sweden, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected nursing home residents, who account for over 20% of all reported COVID-19 deaths. 探花直播level of SARS-CoV-2 transmission among the general population can be difficult to disentangle from these large outbreaks.聽

By contrast, some countries in Asia and South America have far fewer reported COVID-19 deaths in older people than expected. One potential explanation for these 鈥榤issing deaths鈥� is that causes of deaths in elderly populations may be less likely to be investigated and reported as countries struggle to contain the epidemic.

鈥淣ursing homes are enclosed communities of people, and once the virus gets in it can spread quickly resulting in higher levels of infection than in the general population. We鈥檙e seeing an excessively large number of deaths from COVID-19 in this older age group, particularly in countries that have many nursing homes,鈥� said Dr Henrik Salje in the 探花直播 of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Genetics, the senior author of the report.

He added: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just that residents are older than the general population, they are also generally more frail, so a 70-year old living in a nursing home is often more likely to die of COVID-19 than a 70-year old in the general population. To reduce the overall number of COVID-19 deaths it is vital to protect vulnerable elderly communities.鈥澛�

In their new model, the researchers integrated age-specific COVID-19 death data from 45 countries with 22 national-level seroprevalence surveys. Governments of many countries are using seroprevalence surveys to estimate the number of people in a population with antibodies against the coronavirus. Antibodies indicate if a person has been infected with SARS-CoV-2 at some point, so are a good indicator of population-wide infection rates.聽

鈥淥ur model shows that the number of COVID-19 deaths by age, in people under 65 years old, is highly consistent across countries and likely to be a reliable indicator of the number of infections in the population. This is of critical use in a context where most infections are unobserved,鈥� said O鈥橠riscoll.

探花直播model can be used at a country-wide level to predict a person鈥檚 likelihood of dying from COVID-19 following infection, depending on their age. It also works in reverse, to estimate a country鈥檚 total number of infections given its number of COVID-19 deaths in an age group, which is particularly useful in places where seroprevalence studies have not been conducted.

Using death data from under-65 age groups only, which is most representative of transmission in the whole population, it shows that by the 1 September this year an average of 5% of the population of a country had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. However, in some places it was much higher, especially South America.聽

For example, using Peru鈥檚 COVID-19 death figures, which equate to 0.01% of the country鈥檚 population, the model suggests that over half of the population of Peru has now been infected with SARS-CoV-2 鈥� a figure far higher than expected. This indicates particularly high rates of transmission of the virus in Peru.

But even after excluding data from the over 65鈥檚, the model shows that COVID-19 death rates cannot be compared between some countries, because the relationship between infections and deaths is not consistent when other widespread 鈥榗o-morbidity鈥� factors are involved.

鈥淚t seems that people living in places such as Slovenia and Denmark have a low probability of death following infection with SARS-CoV-2, even after accounting for the ages of their populations, which is very different to what we鈥檝e seen in New York, for example. There are likely to be fundamental differences in the populations across countries, which might include their underlying health,鈥� said Salje.

探花直播model also revealed a strong pattern across countries in the 5-9 year age group, which consistently has the lowest probability of death following SARS-CoV-2 infection.

探花直播work demonstrates how age-specific death data alone can be used to reconstruct the underlying level of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a country and how it has changed over time. 探花直播researchers say this approach could be applied at sub-national scale, and may be of particular use in settings where large seroprevalence studies might not be feasible.

This research was funded by the 探花直播 of Cambridge COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant.

Reference
O鈥橠riscoll, M. et al: 鈥�Age-specific mortality and immunity patterns of SARS-CoV-2.鈥� Nature, Nov 2020. DOI:聽10.1038/s41586-020-2918-0

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How you can support Cambridge鈥檚 COVID-19 research

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Simply comparing the total number of deaths across countries may provide a misleading representation of the underlying level of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, because of large differences in reported COVID-19 death rates in elderly populations in different countries.

Most deaths are in older people, but they are the least comparable across countries.

Megan O鈥橠riscoll

Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Coronavirus

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright 漏探花直播 of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.聽 All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways 鈥� as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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探花直播探花直播 of Cambridge and the Institut Pasteur launch Dennis and Mireille Gillings Global Public Health Fellowships

th288 — Thu, 03 Sep 2015 09:28:09 +0000

探花直播Dennis and Mireille Gillings Global Public Health Fellowships are a collaboration between the 探花直播 of Cambridge and the Institut Pasteur.

Designed to advance the next generation of public health leaders, the three year post-doctoral fellowships aim to instill financial acumen and business entrepreneurship against a backdrop of research excellence, all at a formative stage in the careers of young scientists.

探花直播research focus will be on two areas critical to the provision of sustainable global public health solutions: emerging infectious diseases and neuroscience, specifically autism.

鈥淭hese fellowships represent a ground-breaking approach to educating future public health leaders, with potential to transform clinical practice and medical management, impacting the lives of many millions of patients and their families around the globe,鈥� said Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of the 探花直播 of Cambridge.

Professor Christian Br茅chot, President of the Institut Pasteur, emphasized the importance of UK-French- US relations and scientific exchange. 鈥淭hanks to Dennis and Mireille鈥檚 visionary philanthropy in public health, we will be able to further strengthen scientific collaboration through these fellowships,鈥� said Professor Br茅chot.

鈥� 探花直播next generation of public health leaders will rely on dynamic collaboration spanning continents and cultures, along with skills in setting strategy, identifying measurable targets and managing budgets,鈥� said Dr Mireille Gillings. 鈥淲e are enthusiastic to play our part in accelerating progress in public health, and are proud to partner with prestigious organisations such as the 探花直播 of Cambridge and the Institut Pasteur.鈥�

鈥淭oday鈥檚 complex public health challenges demand leaders with strategic vision, excellent leadership skills and an ability to negotiate local, national and global health systems with ease,鈥� said Professor Carol Brayne, Director of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health.

鈥淭o be effective in addressing global health challenges, future leaders must be equally comfortable in the public and private sectors, with a political and commercial astuteness that will enable collaborative working across many sectors.鈥�

探花直播fellowships are aligned with Mireille and Dennis Gillings鈥� vision of developing leaders with skills in all of the 鈥榯hree Ms鈥� 鈥� medicine, money and management 鈥� to steer society through threats of pandemics, toward more healthy behaviour and healthy ageing.

They were established through Mireille鈥檚 longstanding involvement with the Institut Pasteur, and passion for international scientific collaboration and data sharing.

探花直播Mireille and Dennis Gillings Public Health Fellows at Cambridge will receive public health leadership skills training during the first year of the fellowship, followed by one-to-one professional coaching support in years two and three.

During year two, the Fellows will undertake the Postgraduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship at the Judge Business School in Cambridge. This qualification enables the Mireille and Dennis Gillings Public Health Gillings Fellows to develop a critical understanding of entrepreneurship and the core skills needed to develop a sustainable business case, including building the financial model, for an entrepreneurial venture of each Fellow鈥檚 choice.

While the Cambridge Institute for Public Health has been producing scientific leaders in public health for decades, the Mireille and Dennis Gillings Global Public Health Fellowships present an exciting opportunity to establish an explicit link between scientific and business leadership and train future global public health leaders.

Mireille Gillings, PhD, is the founder and CEO of HUYA Bioscience International, the global leader in accelerating development of biopharma innovation originating in China. As a visionary leader with more than 22 years鈥� experience in the biotech sector, Dr M Gillings has a unique balance of scientific and operational experience of preclinical聽and clinical drug development, academic partnering programmes and business leadership. At Quintiles, a Fortune 500 company, Dr M Gillings was the first woman to be appointed to the Board of Directors since the company鈥檚 privatisation and subsequent IPO. In addition to serving as a director she is a member of the Governance, Quality and Nominating committee. Dr M Gillings is co-founder and non-Executive Vice Chair of GHO Capital, a European private equity fund specialising in global health opportunities. She聽is also a member of the US Pasteur Foundation Board.聽

Dennis Gillings, PhD, CBE, founded Quintiles in 1982 and is a leading pioneer of the contract research organisation industry. Dr D Gillings is executive chair of Quintiles and also served as chief executive officer. He received a Doctor of Philosophy in mathematics from the 探花直播 of Exeter, and for more than 15 years served as professor of biostatistics at the 探花直播 of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2004, Dr D Gillings was awarded the CBE and in 2014 was appointed World Dementia Envoy by UK Prime Minister David Cameron.

Applications for the two聽Fellowships are now invited here聽and here.

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New Fellowships have been announced today to enhance the next generation of public health leaders

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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