About the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium
The current COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, represents a major threat to health in the UK and globally. To fully understand the transmission and evolution of the virus requires sequencing and analysing viral genomes at scale and speed. The numbers of samples calls for a rapid increase in the UK’s pathogen genome sequencing capacity rapidly and robustly.
To provide this increased capacity to collect, sequence and analyse the whole genomes of virus samples in the UK, the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium is pooling the world leading knowledge and expertise in genomics of the four UK Public Health Agencies, multiple regional University hubs, and large sequencing centres such as the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Below is a listing of all the funders, academic organisations, NHS organisations and collaborators working together within COG-UK who have come together to meet this need.
If you would like to know more about COVID-19 – the latest understanding and facts about how the virus works, how it is spread and how to control it – please visit the UKRI website: Coronavirus: the science explained.
Funders
The following organisations have contributed a combined £20 million to support the work of the Consortium:
Department of Health and Social Care
Find out more about the Department of Health and Social Care at:
https://
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)
UKRI works in partnership with universities, research organisations, businesses, charities, and government to create the best possible environment for research and innovation to flourish. We aim to maximise the contribution of each of our component parts, working individually and collectively. We work with our many partners to benefit everyone through knowledge, talent and ideas. Operating across the whole of the UK with a combined budget of more than £7 billion, UK Research and Innovation brings together the seven research councils, Innovate UK and Research England.
Wellcome
Wellcome exists to improve health by helping great ideas to thrive. We support researchers, we take on big health challenges, we campaign for better science, and we help everyone get involved with science and health research. We are a politically and financially independent foundation.
Wellcome Sanger Institute
The Wellcome Sanger Institute, is supplying supplying financial, technical, research and administrative support to the work of the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK)
Partners
The following academic universities, institutions, Public Health groups and NHS organisations are working together in the Consortium:
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
Contributor:
- Mr Cherian Koshy, Chief Biomedical Scientist, Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust [LinkedIN]
Belfast Health and Social Care Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Derek Fairley, (Regional Virus Laboratory)
- Dr Tanya Curran, (Regional Virus Laboratory)
- Dr James McKenna, (Regional Virus Laboratory)
- Molecular Typing team (Regional Virus Laboratory)
The Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (BHSCT) Regional Virus Laboratory team are working in partnership with Queen’s University Belfast and BHSCT Regional Genetics Laboratory to sequence SARS-CoV-2 samples from patients in Northern Ireland as part of the COG-UK consortium.
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Big Data Institute
Contributors:
- Dr Christophe Fraser, Senior Group Leader in Pathogen Dynamics, Nuffield Department of Medicine, [ORCID] [Profile]
- Dr David Bonsall, Nuffield Department of Medicine [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Tanya Golubchik, Computational Biologist, Nuffield Department of Medicine [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Dr Catrin Moore, Research Group Leader in the Global Burden of Antimicrobial Resistance, Nuffield Department of Medicine [Profile] [Researchgate]
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Dr M. Estée Török, Department of Medicine [LinkedIn]
- Dr William L. Hamilton, Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Dr Martin D. Curran, Public Health England; Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
Contributors:
- Joshua Maksimovic,
- Karla Spellman,
- Kathryn McCluggage, Genetic Technologist at the Institute of Medical Genetics [LinkedIn] [Researchgate]
- Michaela John, Programme Manager, Genomics Partnership Wales
- Robert Beer,
- Safiah Afifi,
- Dr Sian Morgan, Head of Laboratory [LinkedIN]
Cardiff University
Contributors:
- Dr Thomas Connor, Reader, School of Biosciences, Cardiff University and Consultant Bioinformatician/Pathogen Bioinformatics Lead, Public Health Wales NHS Trust [GoogleScholar] [ORCID]
- Dr Anna Price, Research Software Engineer (Supercomputing Wales and CLIMB-BIG-DATA) [ORCID]
- Joel Southgate, Research Student, School of Biosciences
- Dr Angela Marchbank, Genome Hub Manager [LinkedIn] [ORCID]
- Dr Christine Kitchen, Assistant Director of Research Computing, University Research Technologies at Cardiff University [LinkedIn]
- Dr Ian Merrick, Senior Systems Engineer, School of Biosciences
- Professor Martyn Guest, Director of Advanced Research Computing and Technical Director at HPC Wales, [LinkedIn] [Researchgate]
- Robert Munn, HEC System Engineer
- Trudy Workman, [ORCID]
- William Fuller, Laboratory Technician, School of Biosciences [Profile]
- Catherine Bresner, Senior Technician (Genome Hub) [ORCID] [Profile]
- Advanced Research Computing at Cardiff / Supercomputing Wales
The Cardiff team are supporting the project through the use of the MRC CLIMB node hosted at Cardiff, which will provide computational capacity for analysis and data storage for the consortium. The bioinformatics and sequencing staff in the School of Biosciences are also working as part of the PHW Pathogen Genomics effort to manage, sequence and analyse SARS-COV-2 samples collected in Wales.
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Veena Raviprakash, Consultant Microbiologist
- Sharon Campbell, Head Biomedical Scientist in microbiology at the University Hospital of North Durham
- Nicola Sherriff, Senior Biomedical Scientist
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
Contributor:
- Felicity Ryan, Senior Clinical Scientist [ORCID]
- Hannah Lowe
- Dr Samuel Moses, Consultant in Virology and Infection, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust and University of Kent [LinkedIN]
EMBL-EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute)
Contributor:
- Dr Guy Cochrane, Team Leader, Data Coordination and Archiving and Head of the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA)
- Dr Zamin Iqbal, Research Group Leader
Genomics England Limited
Genomics Partnership Wales
Genomics Partnership Wales (GPW) is the entity setup by Welsh Government to deliver the Welsh Genomics for Precision Medicine Strategy. GPW is the umbrella for pathogen and human genomics work in the NHS in Wales, and is supporting the Pathogen Genomics work being undertaken in Wales.
Contributor:
- Michaela John, Programme manager
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Contributor:
- Dr John Boyes, Consultant Medical Microbiologist and Head of Microbiology Department at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and Honorary Clinical Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Bristol
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Professor Judith Breuer, Professor of Virology and Co-Director of the Division of Infection and Immunity at UCL and Consultant Clinical Virologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children [GoogleScholar] [ORCID] [Profile]
- Dr Kathryn Harris, Clinical Scientist [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Julianne Brown, Clinical Scientist, Department of Microbiology, Virology and Infection Control [Researchgate]
- Dr Divya Shah,
- Laura Atkinson, Trainee Clinical Scientist (Microbiology) at Great Ormond Street Hospital [LinkedIN]
- Jack Lee, Research Assistant, Department of Microbiology, Virology and Infection Control [Researchgate]
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham, as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic and cardiovascular services.
- Ms Chloe L Fisher, Sequencing and analysis, Genomics Innovation Unit, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
- Dr Luke B Snell, Metadata curation, Centre for Clinical Infection & Diagnostics Research (St. Thomas’ Hospital); King’s College London [Researchgate]
- Mr Adrian W Signell, Sequencing and analysis, Department of Infectious Diseases, King’s College London [ORCID]
- Dr Gilberto Betancor, Sequencing and analysis, Department of Infectious Diseases, King’s College London [ORCID]
- Mr Harry D Wilson, Sequencing and analysis, Department of Infectious Diseases, King’s College London [ORCID]
- Ms Adela Alcolea-Medina, Samples and logistics, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals, Viapath [LinkedIN]
- Ms Themoula Charalampous, Samples and logistics, Centre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; King’s College London [ORCID]
- Dr Gaia Nebbia, Sequencing and analysis, Centre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; King’s College London [Researchgate]
- Dr Rahul Batra, Project administration, Samples and logistics, Centre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; King’s College London [Researchgate]
- Dr Jonathan Edgeworth, Leadership and supervision – Funding acquisition, Centre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; King’s College London [Profile]
- Dr Ali R Awan, Leadership and supervision – Sequencing and analysis, Funding acquisition, Software and analysis tools Genomics Innovation Unit, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust [ORCID]
Health Services Laboratories
Health Services Laboratories is a partnership between The Doctors Laboratory, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (the Royal Free London) and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH).
Contributors:
- Dr Lisa J Levett, Director of Genetics and Molecular Pathology [Profile]
- Dr Judith Heaney
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Paul Randell, Consultant Virologist, North West London Pathology [Researchgate]
- Dr Alison Cox, Lead Scientist in Cellular and Molecular Immunology [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Pinglawathee Madona, North West London Pathology
Imperial College London
Contributors:
- Professor Neil Ferguson, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health
- Dr Erik Volz, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Aileen Rowan, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Immunology and Inflammation [GoogleScholar] [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Professor Graham Taylor, Professor of Human Retrovirology, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Infectious Disease [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Manon Ragonnet-Cronin, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health [GoogleScholar] [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Fabricia F. Nascimento, Research Associate, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health [GoogleScholar] [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- David Jorgensen, Research Postgraduate, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Igor Siveroni, Scientific Java Software Developer, Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health [GoogleScholar] [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Rob Johnson,
- Olivia Boyd, Research Postgraduate, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Lily Geidelberg, Research Postgraduate, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
King's College London
Contributors:
- Dr Rocio Martinez-Nunez, Lecturer in the School of Immunology & Microbial Sciences [Laboratory Page] [Profile]
- Dr Luke B Snell, Metadata curation, Centre for Clinical Infection & Diagnostics Research (St. Thomas’ Hospital); King’s College London [Researchgate]
- Mr Adrian W Signell, Sequencing and analysis, Department of Infectious Diseases, King’s College London [ORCID]
- Dr Gilberto Betancor, Sequencing and analysis, Department of Infectious Diseases, King’s College London [ORCID]
- Mr Harry D Wilson, Sequencing and analysis, Department of Infectious Diseases, King’s College London[ORCID]
- Ms Adela Alcolea-Medina, Samples and logistics, Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Hospitals, Viapath [LinkedIN]
- Ms Themoula Charalampous, Samples and logistics, Centre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; King’s College London [ORCID]
- Dr Gaia Nebbia, Sequencing and analysis Centre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; King’s College London [Researchgate]
- Dr Rahul Batra, Project administration, Samples and logistics, Centre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; King’s College London [Researchgate]
- Dr Jonathan Edgeworth, Leadership and supervision – Funding acquisition,
Centre for Clinical Infection and Diagnostics Research, Department of Infectious Diseases, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust; King’s College London [Profile]
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Contributor:
- Dr Graciela Sluga, Deputy Director Infection Prevention and Control & Consultant Microbiologist
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Ryan George, Clinical Scientist/Infection Prevention & Control Senior Surveillance Officer [Researchgate]
- Dr Nicholas Machin, Consultant Virologist and Clinical Lead for Virology at Manchester University Foundation Trust and Public Health Laboratory Manchester [LinkedIN]
- Dr Shazaad Ahmad, Consultant Virologist based within the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust’s Manchester Medical Microbiology Partnership and Public Health England
MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research
The mission of the MRC-Centre for Virus research is to carry out fundamental research on viruses and viral diseases, translating the knowledge gained for the improvement of health and the benefit of society.
Contributors:
- Professor Emma Thomson, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation [Profile] [ORCID] [ResearchGate]
- Professor David Robertson, Head of Viral Genomics and Bioinformatics, CVR Bioinformatics [ORCID]
- Dr Ana da Silva Filipe, Head of Genomics [ORCID]
- James Shepherd, CVR clinical fellow [ORCID]
- Dr Kathy Li, CVR clinical fellow [ORCID]
- Dr Natasha Jesudason, CVR clinical fellow [ORCID]
- Rajiv Shah, CVR clinical fellow [ORCID]
- Dr Kathy Smollett, CVR research associate – genomics [ORCID]
- Dr Stephen Carmichael, CVR research associate – genomics [ORCID] [ResearchGate]
- Dr Lilly Tong, CVR research associate – genomics
- Natasha Johnson, CVR technician – genomics [ORCID]
- Daniel Mair, CVR technician – genomics [ORCID]
- Jenna Nichols, CVR technician – genomics [ORCID]
- Dr Richard Orton, CVR bioinformatician, CVR Bioinformatics
- Dr Joseph Hughes, CVR bioinformatician, CVR Bioinformatics
- Dr Sreenu Vattipally, CVR bioinformatician, CVR Bioinformatics
- Dr Josh Singer, CVR software engineer, CVR Bioinformatics
- Dr Elihu Aranday-Cortes, CVR Research Associate [ORCID]
- Dr Kyriaki Nomikou, CVR Senior Research Fellow [ORCID]
- Dr Yasmin A Parr, CVR Research Assistant [ORCID]
- Dr Kirstyn Brunker, Research Associate, Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine [ORCID]
- Ms Alice Broos, CVR Research Technician [ORCID]
- Dr Patawee Asmaphan, [ORCID] [ResearchGate]
- Dr Marc Niebel, [LinkedIn] [ORCID] [ResearchGate]
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Yusri Taha Consultant Virologist (Clinical Lead) [Profile]
- Dr Shirelle Burton-Fanning, Consultant Virologist [Profile]
- Dr Sheila Waugh, Consultant Virologist [Profile]
- Dr Brendan Payne, Consultant Virologist [Profile]
- Jennifer Collins, Microbiology Laboratory [Profile]
- Gary Eltringham, Microbiology Laboratory [Profile]
NHS Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Nathan Moore, Department of Microbiology [Researchgate]
- Dr Emma Wise, Research fellow in virology [LinkedIn] [ORCID]
- Dr Nick Cortes, Consultant at Basingstoke Hospital and at University of Surrey [Researchgate]
- Dr Jessica Lynch, Basingstoke Hospital and at University of Surrey [LinkedIN]
- Dr Stephen Kidd, Basingstoke Hospital and at University of Surrey [LinkedIN]
NHS Lothian
Contributors:
- Dr Kate Templeton, Consultant Clinical Scientist, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh
- Martin McHugh, Clinical Scientist, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh [ORCID]
- Dr Rebecca Dewar, Clinical Scientist, Royal Infirmary Edinburgh
NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections (HCAI) and Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) at Imperial College
Contributors:
- Professor Alison Holmes, Director of NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in HCAI and AMR, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Professor of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London [Profile at Imperial College London] [Profile at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust]
- Dr Frances Bolt, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in HCAI and AMR, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr James Price, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in HCAI and AMR, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Siddharth Mookerjee, NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in HCAI and AMR, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London [Researchgate]
Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Contributor:
- Dr Samir Dervisevic, Consultant Medical Virologist [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Dr Rachael Stanley, Norwich Park Biorepository Manager [LinkedIN]
- Reenesh Prakash, Microbiology Network Manager
- Claire Stuart,
- Dr Ngozi Elumogo, Consultant Microbiologist & Clinical Director of Laboratory Medicine [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Dr Dheeraj Sethi, [Researchgate]
- Dr Emma Meader, Clinical Scientist [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Lindsay Coupland, Principal Clinical Scientist [LinkedIN]
- Will Potter,
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Clive Graham, Consultant Microbiologist (Clinical Lead)
- Dr Edward Barton, Consultant Microbiologist
- Debra Padgett, Laboratory Manager
- Garren Scott, NHS Scientist
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Jane Greenaway, Associate Director of Durham Tees Valley Research Alliance
- Emma Swindells, Senior Biomedical Scientist
Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Tim Sloan, Clinical Associate Professor in Microbiology at University of Nottingham and Honorary Consultant Microbiologist [LinkedIN]
- Dr Nichola Duckworth, Specialist Biomedical Scientist, Microbiology, Virology
- Dr Sarah Walsh,
Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Monique Andersson, Clinical Infection Consultant [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Robert Shaw
- Professor Timothy Peto [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Miss Anita Justice [Researchgate]
- Dr David Eyre, Big Data Institute [Profile]
- Dr Derrick Crooke, Professor of Microbiology [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Sarah Hoosdally, Project Manager [Profile] [Researchgate]
Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
Contributors:
- Professor Anoop Chauhan, Respiratory Physician [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Dr Sharon Glaysher, Specialist Biomedical Scientist and Translational Research Laboratory Manager, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Ethan Butcher,
Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust
Public Health Agency
Contributors:
- Dr Tim Wyatt, Consultant Microbiologist
- Dr Declan Bradley, Consultant in Public Health Medicine and Clinical Lecturer in Public Health [ORCID] [Profile]
Public Health England
Public Health England aims to address urgent threats to health in the 21st century. The organisation has been central to the national response to COVID-19, and has led this proposal to develop a national capability to sequence the causative virus and use this to inform public health interventions.
The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium will be led by Sharon Peacock as a collaborative initiative to capture information on the virus and from patients so as to reduce the impact from the COVID-19 epidemic in the UK.
Contributors:
- Professor Sharon Peacock, Director of the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium and Director of the National Infection Service, Public Health England
- Richard Myers, Interim Head of Bioinformatics, PHE Core Bioinformatics Unit
- Professor Saheer Gharbia, Genomics Research Unit
- Dr Tamyo Mbisa, Head of the Antiviral Unit and Clinical Scientist at the Virus Reference Department at Public Health England
- Dr Angie Lackenby, Sequencing Lead, Clinical Scientist, Respiratory Virus Unit, Virus Reference Department, National Infection Service
- Dr Shahjahan Miah, Technical Lead for Sequencing, Respiratory Virus Unit, Virus Reference Department, National Infection Service
- Dr Steven Platt, Bioinformatician, Respiratory Virus Unit, Virus Reference Department, National Infection Service
- Dr Jonathan Hubb, Head of Central Sequencing Laboratory, National Infection Service
- Dr Meera Chand, consultant microbiologist
- Dr Gavin Dabrera, Consultant Epidemiologist
- Dr Mary Ramsay, Head of Immunisations
- Dr Daniel Bradshaw, Consultant Virologist
- Dr Peter Muir, Clinical Scientist [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Dr Ian B Vipond, Clinical Scientist [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Mr Richard Hopes, Virology Laboratory Manager Bristol Public Health England [LinkedIN]
- Hannah Pymont, Trainee Clinical Scientist [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Ms Stephanie Hutchings, Trainee Clinical Scientist in Infection Sciences [LinkedIN]
https://
Public Health England, Clinical Microbiology and Public Health Laboratory, Cambridge, UK
Contributors:
- Dr Martin D Curran, Public Health England Clinical Microbiology and Public Health Laboratory, Cambridge, UK [LinkedIn]
- Dr Surendra Parmar, Public Health England Clinical Microbiology and Public Health Laboratory, Cambridge, UK [LinkedIn]
Public Health Scotland
Contributors:
- Professor Matthew Holden, Public Health Scotland and University of St Andrews
- Dr Sharif Shaaban, Bioinformatician, Public Health Microbiology Team, Public Health Scotland
- Dr Alison Smith-Palmer, Senior Epidemiologist, Public Health Scotland
- Dr Michael Lockhart, Consultant Medical Microbiologist and Clinical Lead for the Public Health Microbiology team, Public Health Scotland
Public Health Wales NHS Trust
Public Health Wales NHS Trust (PHW) is the national public health authority for Wales. PHW works to protect and improve health and well-being and reduce health inequalities for the people of Wales. PHW is leading the national response to COVID-19 in Wales. PHW operates diagnostic laboratories across Wales and has been providing SARS-COV-2 testing in Wales. In addition, PHW epidemiology teams have been providing support across Wales to track cases and support management of the outbreak. Sequencing of Welsh samples is being undertaken by the Pathogen Genomics Unit (PenGU). PenGU was formally launched in 2018, and provides an accredited sequencing environment for a range of clinical pathogen genomics services for the whole of Wales.
Contributors:
- Dr Sally Corden, Pathogen Genomics Unit lead
- Dr Thomas Connor, Reader, School of Biosciences, Cardiff University and Consultant Bioinformatician/Pathogen Bioinformatics Lead, Public Health Wales NHS Trust [GoogleScholar] [ORCID]
- Dr Catherine Moore, Consultant Clinical Scientist, Wales Specialist Virology Centre
- Dr Simon Cottrell, Principle Epidemiologist, Communicable and Vaccine Preventable Diseases
- Joanne Watkins, Laboratory Senior, Pathogen Genomics Unit
- Dr Matthew Bull, Senior Bioinformatician, PHW Pathogen Bioinformatics [Google Scholar]
- Dr Sara Rey, Bioinformatician, PHW Pathogen Bioinformatics
- Alexander Adams,
- Amy Gaskin, Bioinformatician & Genomic Epidemiologist in the Pathogen Genomics Unit at Public Health Wales[LinkedIn] [Researchgate]
- Bree Gatica-Wilcox, Specialist Biomedical Scientist, Pathogen Genomics Unit (PenGU), Public Health Wales
- Dr Chris Williams, Consultant Epidemiologist [LinkedIn] [ORCID]
- Elen De Lacy, Public Health Research and Development Manager at Public Health Wales [LinkedIn] [Researchgate]
- Ember Hilvers, Epidemiological Scientist at Public Health Wales & Aneurin Bevan University Health Board [LinkedIn] [Researchgate]
- Dr Hibo Asad, Hospital Epidemiologist [LinkedIn] [Researchgate]
- Dr Jason Coombs, Healthcare Scientist at the Pathogen Genomics Unit (PENGU) [LinkedIn]
- Joanne Watkins, Senior Biomedical Scientist at NHS Wales [LinkedIn] [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Joel Southgate, Biomedical Scientist (Bioinformatics) [LinkedIn] [ORCID]
- Jonathan Evans, Lead Biomedical Scientist, Wales Specialist Virology Centre
- Laura Gifford, Department of Virology [Researchgate]
- Lauren Gilbert, Higher healthcare support worker [LinkedIn]
- Lee Graham, Healthcare Scientist at the Pathogen Genomics Unit (PenGU) [ORCHID] [Researchgate]
- Dr Mari Morgan, [Researchgate]
- Dr Nicole Pacchiarini, Bioinformatician at Pathogen Genomics Unit (PenGU) [LinkedIN] [ORCID]
- Dr Summer Kumziene-Summerhayes,
- Sophie Jones, [Researchgate]
- Alec Birchley, Biomedical Scientist at Public Health Wales, Pathogen Genomics Unit [LinkedIN]
- Dr Caoimhe McKerr, Epidemiologist [LinkedIN]
- Fatima Downing, Project Manager [LinkedIN]
- Malorie Perry [LinkedIN]
- Dr Noel Craine, Research Scientist
- Sarah Taylor, Healthcare Scientist, Pathogen Genomics [LinkedIN]
- Sue Edwards
- PHW Pathogen Genomics laboratory and Bioinformatics teams
The Pathogen Genomics team in Public Health Wales will be contributing to COG-UK by sequencing and analysing Welsh SARS-COV-2 cases. Data that is being generated is being fed back in real time to clinical colleagues across the NHS in Wales as well as feeding into outbreak management and planning within the Welsh NHS and Welsh Government. In addition to sequencing samples, the team are providing bioinformatics support to build production-ready pipelines for processing samples, supporting the development of systems on CLIMB for consortium use and leading efforts to enable metadata sharing across the UK.
Quadram Institute
Contributors:
- Dr Justin O’Grady, Group Leader, Rapid infectious disease and foodborne pathogen diagnosis/detection [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Andrew Page, Head of Informatics [GoogleScholar] [ORCID] [Profile]
- Professor John Wain, Research Leader [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Mark Webber, Group Leader [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Alison Mather, Group Leader [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- David Baker, Science Support [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Steven Rudder, Researcher [LinkedIn] [Profile]
- Dr Muhammad Yasir, Researcher [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Nicholas Thomson, Researcher [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Alp Aydin [ORCID]
- Dr Ana Tedim [ORCID] [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Gemma Kay, Senior Research [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Alexander Trotter, Postgraduate Student [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Rachel Gilroy
- Dr Nabil-Fareed Alikhan, Bioinformatician [ORCID] [Profile]
- Leonardo de Oliveira Martins, Senior Researcher [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Thanh Le-Viet, Bioinformatician [ORCID] [Profile]
- Lizzie Meadows, Biorespository Manager [LinkedIN]
- Dr Anastasia Kolyva, Researcher [Profile]
- Dr Maria Diaz, Researcher [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Andrew Bell, [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Ana Victoria Gutierrez, Scientific Researcher [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Ian Charles [Researchgate]
- Dr Evelien Adriaenssens, Group Leader [GoogleScholar] [ORCID] [Profile]
- Professor Robert Kingsley, Group Leader [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
Queen's University Belfast
Contributors:
- Dr David Simpson, Senior Lecturer/Genomics Core Technology Unit
- Dr Declan Bradley, Consultant in Public Health Medicine and Clinical Lecturer in Public Health [ORCID] [Profile]
- Dr Zoltan Molnar
- Dr Thomas Thompson, Postgraduate Research Student, School of Pharmacy [Profile]
- Dr Erwan Atcheson, Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences [Profile]
Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust
Exeter Clinical Laboratory International is an NHS laboratory located at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in collaboration with the University of Exeter.
Contributors:
- Dr Bridget Knight, Senior Research Midwife/Nurse, Medical School [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Professor Andrew Hattersley, Gillings Chair of Precision Medicine, Professor of Molecular Medicine & Consultant Physician, Medical School [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Professor Sian Ellard, Gillings Chair of Precision Medicine, Professor of Genomic Medicine, Medical School [ORCID] [Profile]
- Dr Cressida Auckland, Consultant in Clinical Microbiology & Infection / Pathology Clinical Lead [Researchgate]
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Tabitha Mahungu, Consultant virologist and Infectious Disease physician [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Dianne Irish-Tavares, Consultant virologist [Profile]
- Dr Tanzina Haque, Clinical lead consultant virologist and honorary senior lecturer [Profile]
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Cariad Evans, Consultant Virologist, [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Mohammad Raza, Consultant Virologist [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Alison Cope, Consultant Virologist
- Dr Alexander Keeley, Academic Clinical Fellow, Department of Infection and Immunity [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Benjamin Lindsey, Academic Clinical Fellow [ORCID]
- Dr David Partridge, Consultant Microbiologist [ORCID]
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Contributors:
- Paul Baker, Consultant and Clinical Lead [ORCID] James Cook University Hospital Pathology Laboratories and Research,
- Steven Liggett, Facilitator, Pathology Research and Development
- Sarah Essex, Clinical Trial Practitioner
Swansea University
Contributor:
- Professor Ronan Lyons, Professor of Public Health at Swansea University and Honorary Consultant in Public Health with Public Health Wales NHS Trust [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Researchgate]
The Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance
Contributors:
- Professor David Aanensen, Director of the Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance
- Dr Khalil Abudahab, Principal Software Developer
- Mirko Menegazzo, EpiCollect Lead
- Ben Taylor, Principal Software Developer
- Dr Anthony Underwood, Bioinformatics Implementation Manager
- Dr Corin Yeats, Computational Biologist
The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Anthony Hale, National Infection Service, Public Health England, and Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust [Researchgate]
- Dr Louissa MacFarlane-Smith, National Infection Service, Public Health England, and Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust [Researchgate]
- Katherine Harper, National Infection Service, Public Health England, and Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust
UK Biocentre
The UK Biocentre is hosting and managing the Milton Keynes Lighthouse Lab set up to provide diagnostic services for COVID-19 testing.
UK Biocentre is a subsidiary of UK Biobank and was established to share expertise of high-throughput sample handling with other academic partners. UK Biobank is a national health resource following the lives of 500,000 participants and providing key data for a wide range of health studies, including those into the COVID-19 pandemic.
Contributor:
- Dr Tony Cox, Chief Executive
UK Lighthouse Lab - Alderley Park, Cheshire
The Alderley Park, Cheshire Lighthouse Lab is supplying diagnostic services to the UK’s COVID-19 testing. The Lab is located in new dedicated labs at Bruntwood SciTech’s Alderley Park and is led by Medicines Discovery Catapult.
UK Lighthouse Lab - Cambridge
The Cambridge Lighthouse Lab has been set up to supply diagnostic services to the UK’s COVID-19 testing. AstraZeneca, GSK, and the University of Cambridge have formed a joint collaboration to setup the Cambridge Lighthouse Lab at the University’s Anne McLaren laboratory.
UK Lighthouse Lab - Glasgow
The Glasgow Lighthouse Lab is supplying diagnostic services for the UK’s COVID-19 testing service. The Lighthouse Lab is led by the University of Glasgow and is located at the city’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Campus. The Glasgow facility is supported by the Scottish Government, BioAscent and the University of Dundee.
UK Lighthouse Lab - Milton Keynes
The Milton Keynes Lighthouse Lab, set up to provide diagnostic services for COVID-19 testing is based at and managed by UK Biocentre – the largest facility in the UK for storing and processing biological samples.
UK Lighthouse Labs Network
The UK Lighthouse Labs have been established across the nation in a matter of weeks to dramatically increase the number of coronavirus tests that can take place each day to support the national effort against the coronavirus pandemic.
The new Lighthouse Labs have been constructed through a partnership with the Department of Health, Medicines Discovery Catapult, UK Biocentre and the University of Glasgow. Their development is being closely supported by both the NHS and Public Health England.
COVID-19 swab samples are sent to the laboratories from across the country for analysis. Samples are received from the NHS on the front line and other testing sites, such as the temporary COVID-19 drive-through testing centres.
Lighthouse Labs are based at:
- Alderley Edge, Cheshire
- Cambridge
- Glagow
- Milton Keynes
University College London
Contributors:
Leading the sequencing initiative at UCL are:
- Professor Judith Breuer, Professor of Virology and Co-Director of the Division of Infection and Immunity at UCL and Consultant Clinical Virologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children [GoogleScholar] [ORCID] [Profile]
- Dr Sergi Castellano Hereza, Reader in Genomics [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Rachel Williams, NGS Facility Manager and Project Manager, Pathogen Genomics Unit
- Dr Mark Kristiansen, UCL Genomics Facility Manager, UCL Genomics
- Dr Sunando Roy, Research Associate in Bioinformatics [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Paola Resende Silva, Visting Worker and Researcher in Public Heath at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute [Researchgate]
- Charlotte Williams, Research Assistant at the Pathogen Genomics Unit [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Patricia Dyal Bynoe, Research Technician in the Pathogen Genomics Unit
- Dr Helena Tutill, Senior Research Technician [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Yasmin Panchbhaya, Research Assistant
- Leysa Forrest, Applications Specialist, UCL Genomics
- Dr Paola Niola, Application Specialist, UCL Genomics
- Dr Jacqueline Findlay, Research Fellow, Division of Infection and Immunity [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Profile]
- Tony Brooks, Applications Specialist, UCL Genomics [Researchgate]
- Dr Artemis Gavriil, Research Fellow [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Lamia Mestek-Boukhibar, Research Geneticist at Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health UCL [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Sam Weeks, PhD Student [LinkedIN]
The team have been working in joint partnership with Virology at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust; Dr David Muir and Dr Paul Rendell to deliver the pipeline of sequencing data.


UCL and Imperial are also leading the COG-UK Hospital-Onset COVID-19 Infections (HOCI) Study; A phase III prospective, interventional, cohort, superiority study to evaluate the benefit of rapid COVID-19 genomic sequencing (the COVID-19 GENOMICS UK project) on infection control in preventing the spread of the virus in United Kingdom NHS hospitals. COG-UK collaborators include Glasgow, Sheffield and Guys and St Thomas’ Trust
University Hospitals Birmingham
Contributors:
- Dr Husam Osman, Consultant Virologist at Heartlands Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham and Public Health England [LinkedIN]
- Dr Anna Casey, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Andrew Bosworth, Clinical Virologist at Heartlands Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham and Public Health England [LinkedIN]
- Dr Esther Robinson, at Heartlands Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham and Public Health England [GoogleScholar]
- Dr Venkat Sivaprakasan, at Heartlands Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham
University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW NHS Trust)
The University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW) Blood Sciences Genomics Laboratory, are working in partnership with University of Warwick to sequence SARS-CoV-2 samples from patients in Coventry and Warwickshire as part of the COG-UK consortium.
Contributors:
- Professor Dimitris Grammatopoulos; Professor Consultant in Molecular Medicine, Warwick Medical School and Institute of Precision Diagnostics, Pathology, UHCW NHS Trust [ORCID]
- Sarojini Pandey; Senior Biomedical Scientist Blood Sciences Genomics Laboratory, UHCW Pathology [ORCID]
- Dr Lisa Berry, Principal Clinical Scientist [LinkedIN]
- Katie Jones,
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Christopher Holmes, Clinical Scientist, Clinical Microbiology [LinkedIN]
- Paul Bird, Clinical Microbiology [Researchgate]
- Karlie Fallon, Technician, Clinical Microbiology [Researchgate]
- Thomas Helmer, Clinical Microbiology
- Dr Julian Tang, Consultant Virologist, Clinical Microbiology [GoogleScholar] [Researchgate]
University of Birmingham
Contributors:
- Professor Nick Loman, Institute of Microbiology and Infection [ORCID] [Profile]
- Dr Josh Quick, UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Institute of Microbiology and Infection [Google Scholar] [Profile]
- Dr Claire McMurray, Research Fellow (Molecular Biology) [Researchgate]
- Dr Sam Nicholls, Research Fellow (Bioinformatics) [Profile]
- Radoslaw Poplawski, CLIMB System Manager
- Dr Will Rowe, Research Fellow (Bioinformatics) [Web page]
- Dr Jo Stockton, Research Fellow (Sequencing) [LinkedIN]
- Professor Alex Richter, Senior lecturer and Consultant in Clinical Immunology, Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy [Profile]
- Professor Andrew Beggs, Professor of Cancer Genetics & Surgery in the Institute of Cancer and Genomic Sciences [Profile]
The team will be drawing on ARTIC and CLIMB. The CLIMB project, which recently secured funding for a further five years with the CLIMB-BIG-DATA project, will provide the data analysis pipelines, computing and storage capacity required.
The ARTIC project, funded by a Wellcome Trust Collaborative Award, is a collaborative project to put genomics at the heart of outbreak response
University of Brighton
Contributors:
- Professor Colin Smith, Professor of Functional Genomics [Profile]
- Dr Giselda Bucca, Experimental Officer, Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences [Profile]
- Dr Andrew Hesketh, Experimental Officer in Bioinformatics [Profile]
University of Cambridge
Contributors:
- Dr Catherine Ludden, Director of Operations for the Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium [LinkedIn]
- Professor Ravindra Gupta, Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Diseases [Profile]
- Professor Julian Parkhill, Department of Veterinary Medicine [Profile]
- Professor Gordon Dougan, Department of Medicine [Profile]
- Professor Ian Goodfellow, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [Profile]
- Dr Luke W Meredith, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [Profile]
- Dr M. Estée Török, Department of Medicine [LinkedIn] [Profile]
- Dr Myra Hosmillo, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Dr William L. Hamilton, Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [Profile]
- Dr Martin D. Curran, Public Health England; Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [LinkedIN]
- Theresa Feltwell, Department of Medicine [LinkedIN]
- Grant Hall, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology
- Anna Yakovleva, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [Researchgate]
- Fahad A Khokhar, Department of Medicine [Profile]
- Dr Charlotte J. Houldcroft, Department of Medicine [ORCID] [Profile]
- Dr Laura G Caller, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology; Francis Crick Institute [Researchgate]
- Dr Anna A Smielewska, Department of Pathology [Researchgate]
- Dr Aminu S. Jahun, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [Profile]
- Dr Sarah L. Caddy, Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease [Profile]
- Carol Churcher, Project Manager, Department of Medicine [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Michael Chapman, Director of Health Informatics at Health Data Research UK, Cambridge Health Data Research UK Cambridge Hub (including Wellcome Sanger Institute and University of Cambridge) [Profile]
- Dr Elias Allara, Research Associate, Department of Public Health and Primary Care [Profile]
- Clare Pearson, Public Health England and University of Cambridge [LinkedIN] [ORCID]
- Grant Hall, MPhil Student, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [ORCID]
- Dr Aminu Jahun, Research Associate, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [LinkedIN]
- Yasmin Chaudhry, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [ORCID]
- Malte Pinckert, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [ORCID]
- Dr Iliana Georgana, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [ORCID]
- Anna Yakovleva, Division of Virology, Department of Pathology [Researchgate]
- Katherine Bellis, Research Assistant [ORCID] [Profile]
- Sophia Girgis, Research Assistant [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Plamena Naydenova, Research Assistant, Department of Medicine [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Beth Blane, Research Assistant, Department of Medicine [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Sally Forrest, Research Assistant, Department of Medicine [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Claire Cormie, Research Assistant, Department of Medicine [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Joana Dias, Research Assistant, Department of Medicine [Profile]
- Ellen Higginson, Research Associate, Department of Medicine [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Mailis Maes, Research Assistant, Department of Medicine [GoogleScholar] [Profile]
- Jamie Young,
- Leanne Kermack, Department of Medicine [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Nicola Reynolds, Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, University of Cambridge [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
University of East Anglia
Contributors:
- Luke Griffith, PhD Student, [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Tracey Swingler, Senior Research Associate [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Rose Davidson, [Profile] [Researchgate]
University of Edinburgh
Contributors:
School of Biological Sciences
- Professor Andrew Rambaut, Professor of Molecular Evolution
- Dr Samantha Lycett, Group Leader
- Dr Benjamin Jackson, Research Fellow
- Rachel Colquhoun, Postdoctoral Researcher
- JT McCrone, Postdoctoral Researcher
- Emily Scher, Postdoctoral Research Associate
- Nathan Medd, Training and Outreach Manager, Edinburgh Genomics
- Verity Hill, PhD student
- Áine O’Toole, PhD student
- Stefan Rooke, PhD student
- Dr Kate Templeton, Consultant Clinical Scientist, RIE and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Medical Microbiology
- Dr Thomas Williams, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine
- Dr Carlos Balcazar [LinkedIn]
- Dr Kathleen Williamson, Research Fellow, Deanery of Molecular, Genetic and Population Health Sciences, MRC Human Genetics Unit [ORCID]
University of Exeter
Contributors:
- Dr Stephen Michell, Senior Lecturer in Molecular Microbiology, College of Life and Environmental Sciences [Profile]
- Dr Ben Temperton, Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics, College of Life and Environmental Sciences [GitHub] [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Aaron Jeffries, Senior Research Fellow, University of Exeter Medical School
- Professor David Studholme, Associate Professor in Bioinformatics, College of Life and Environmental Sciences
- Dr Jane Masoli, Academic Geriatrician, Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust and University of Exeter Medical School
- Claire Bewshea, Exeter IBD and Pharmacogenetic Research Manager [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Joanna Warwick-Dugdale, PhD Student, [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Helen Morcrette, Graduate Research Assistant, [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Robyn Manley, Postdoctoral Researcher, [GoogleScholar] [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Audrey Farbos, Laboratory Technician, Exeter Sequencing Service, [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Bridget Knight, Senior Research Midwife/Nurse, Medical School [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Professor Andrew Hattersley, Gillings Chair of Precision Medicine, Professor of Molecular Medicine & Consultant Physician, Medical School [GoogleScholar] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Professor Sian Ellard, Gillings Chair of Precision Medicine, Professor of Genomic Medicine, Medical School [ORCID] [Profile]
The team is working closely with the Clinical Diagnostics teams at the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust and in the surrounding area.
University of Liverpool
Contributors:
- Professor Julian Hiscox, Chair in Infection and Global Health, Institute of Infection and Global Health [Profile]
- Professor Alistair Darby, Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the Centre for Genomic Research, Institute of Integrative Biology [Profile]
- Professor Steve Paterson, Professor of Genetics, Institute of Integrative Biology [ORCID] [Profile]
- Professor Miren Iturriza-Gomara, Professor of Virology, Clinical Infection, Microbiology and Immunology [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Kathryn Jackson, Centre Manager, Centre for Genomic Research [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Anita Lucaci, Research Associate, Functional and Comparative Genomics [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Edith Vamos, [Researchgate]
- Dr Margaret Hughes, Senior Research Assistant, Functional and Comparative Genomics [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Lucille Rainbow, Research Associate, Functional and Comparative Genomics [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Mr Richard Eccles, Research Associate, Functional and Comparative Genomics [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Charlotte Nelson, Functional and Comparative Genomics [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Mark Whitehead, Researcher in Functional and Comparative Genomics at University of Liverpool [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Lance Turtle, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infection, Microbiology and Immunology [Profile] [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Dr Sam Haldenby, Head of Informatics [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Richard Gregory, Senior Research Associate, Functional and Comparative Genomics [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Matthew Gemmell, Research Associate, Functional and Comparative Genomics [GoogleScholar] [LinkedIN] [Profile]
University of Northumbria
Contributors:
- Dr Darren Smith, Associate Professor in Bacteriophage Biology, Department of Applied Biology, Cellular and Molecular Sciences/Microbiology Group, University of Northumbria
- Dr Andrew Nelson, NU-OMICS laboratory manager and Senior Lecturer, Northumbria University.
- Dr Matthew Bashton, Lead Bioinformatician, Vice Chancellors Fellow- HBBE, Northumbria University.
- Dr Greg Young, HBBE, Northumbria University.
- Members of the research team: Dr Wen Chyin Yew, Dr Josh Loh, Dr John Allan, Dr Giles Holt, Dr Mohammad A. Tariq (Quadram Institute), Prof. Gary Black, Dr Lynn Dover
Dr Smith is the academic lead for the DNA sequencing research facility at Northumbria University, NU-OMICS that is linked to both academic and industrially linked DNA sequencing projects
The team is working in partnership with:
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Consultant Virologists Yusri Taha (Clinical Lead), Shirelle Burton-Fanning, Sheila Waugh, Brendan Payne and Microbiology laboratories, Jennifer Collins and Gary Eltringham.
South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Consultant and Clinical Lead, Paul Baker, James Cook University Hospital Pathology Laboratories and Research, Steven Liggett and Sarah Essex.
North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust: Consultant Microbiologists Clive Graham (Clinical Lead) and Edward Barton, Laboratory Manager Debra Padgett and Garren Scott
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust: Associate Director of Durham Tees Valley Research Alliance Jane Greenaway and Senior Biomedical Scientist Emma Swindells.
University of Nottingham
Contributors:
- Professor Matt Loose, Academic Lead for DeepSeq, Developmental and Computational Biology, School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Professor Jonathan Ball, Professor of Molecular Virology, School of Life Sciences, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences [Profile]
The team is working closely with the Clinical Pathology team at Nottingham University Hospitals.
The University of Nottingham next generation sequencing platform, DeepSeq, is providing sequencing expertise and the Virology groups are helping support access to samples.
Deep Seq
Deep Seq is the University of Nottingham Next Generation Sequencing Facility in the Life Sciences, Queens Medical Centre. Deep Seq is able to help with projects from both within and outside the University.
Deep Seq Team:
- Dr Nadine Holmes, Technical Specialist [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Christopher Moore, Technologist in Specialist Genomics [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Mr Matt Carlile, Genomics Technician [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Dr Fei Sang, Research Bioinformatician [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Victoria Wright, Senior Experimental Officer [LinkedIN] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Johnny Debebe,
Clinical Microbiology
- Dr Gemma Clark, Consultant Clinical Scientist [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Wendy Smith, Clinical Trials Coordinator and Research Administrator [LinkedIN]
- Manjinder Khakh,
- Dr Vicki Fleming, HSST Clinical Scientist in Medical Microbiology [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Michelle Lister, Healthcare Scientist [Academia] [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Dr Hannah Howson-Wells,
Virology
- Dr Patrick McClure, Experimental Officer [GoogleScholar] [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate] [Scopus]
- Dr Joseph Chappell, PhD Student [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Dr Theocharis Tsoleridis, Research Fellow [GoogleScholar] [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate] [Scopus]
University of Oxford
Contributors:
- Professor Oliver Pybus, Department of Zoology
- Professor David Aanensen, Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance, cohosted at the Big Data Institute
- Dr David Bonsall, Nuffield Department of Medicine
- Dr Mariateresa de Cesare, Wellcome Centre Human Genetics
- Professor Julian Knight, Wellcome Centre Human Genetics
- Professor John Todd, Wellcome Centre Human Genetics
- Dr Tanya Golubchik, Big Data Institute
- Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski, Big Data Institute
University of Portsmouth
Contributors:
- Dr Samuel Robson, Senior Research Fellow and Bioinformatics Lead at the University of Portsmouth and the Centre for Enzyme Innovation (CEI) [GoogleScholar] [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Yann Bourgeois, Lecturer in School of Biological Sciences [GoogleScholar] [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Angela Beckett, Specialist Research Technician, Centre for Enzyme Innovation
- Dr Garry Scarlett, Associate Head (Innovation and Impact) [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Katie Loveson, Postdoctoral Research [GoogleScholar] [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Researchgate]
The University of Portsmouth Team are currently working in partnership with Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust:
- Professor Anoop Chauhan, Respiratory Physician, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
- Dr Sharon Glaysher, Specialist Biomedical Scientist and Translational Research Laboratory Manager, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
- Scott Elliott, Specialist Biomedical Scientist and and Translational Research Laboratory Manager, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
- Ethan Butcher, Research Associate Practitioner, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
- Kelly Bicknell, Clinical Scientist (Virology), Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
- Dr Sarah Wyllie, Consultant Microbiologist and infection control lead, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
- Allyson Lloyd, Microbiology Laboratory Manager, Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust
University of Sheffield
Contributors:
- Dr Thushan de Silva, Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases, University of Sheffield Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease [ORCID] [Profile]
- Dr Matthew Parker, Sheffield Bioinformatics Core at the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre [ORCID] [Profile]
Members of the research team:
- Dr Adrienn Angyal, Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease [LinkedIn] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Rebecca Brown, Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease
- Matthew Wyles, Senior Core Facility Technician in the Microarray and Next Generation Sequencing Facility, Department of Neuroscience [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Luke Green, Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Rachel Tucker, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, [Researchgate]
- Dr Paul Parsons, Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Danielle Groves, Research Assistant [LinkedIN]
- Laura Carrilero,
- Dr Kate Johnson,
- Dr Nikki Smith, [Researchgate] [Profile]
- Dr Dennis Wang, [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Researchgate] [Profile]
- Timothy Freeman, [LinkedIN] [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- and others: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/medicine/research/research-themes/infection/covid-19
The team is working in partnership with:
- Dr Cariad Evans, Consultant Virologist, [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Mohammad Raza, Consultant Virologist [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Alison Cope, Consultant Virologist
- Dr Alexander Keeley, Academic Clinical Fellow, Department of Infection and Immunity [ORCID] [Profile] [Researchgate]
- Dr Benjamin Lindsey, Academic Clinical Fellow [ORCID]
- Dr David Partridge, Consultant Microbiologist [ORCID]
- at the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s regional NHS virology laboratory based at the Northern General Hospital
University of Surrey
Contributors:
- Dr Emma Wise, Research Fellow in Virology, School of Biosciences and Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences [LinkedIn] [ORCID]
- Dr Nick Cortes, Consultant at Basingstoke Hospital and at University of Surrey [Researchgate]
- Dr Jessica Lynch, Basingstoke Hospital and at University of Surrey [LinkedIN]
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is working in partnership with The University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW) Blood Sciences Genomics Laboratory to sequence SARS-CoV-2 samples from patients in Coventry and Warwickshire as part of the COG-UK consortium.
Contributors:
- Sascha Ott, Associate Professor (Reader) Director, Bioinformatics Research Technology Platform, Dept of Statistics [Profile]
- Dr Meera Unnikrishnan, Associate Professor in Molecular Bacteriology, Warwick Medical School [Group Page] [Profile]
- Dr Chrystala Constantinidou, Associate Professor in Microbiology, Warwick Medical School [Group Page] [Profile]
- Dimitris Grammatopoulos, Professor of Molecular Medicine, Warwick Medical School [ORCID] [Profile]
- Dr Tauqeer Alam, Bioinformatics Group Leader [Profile]
The following researchers are contributing to the day-to day running of the project:
Sequencing
- Jeff Cheng– PhD Student [LinkedIN]
- Lucy Frost -PhD student [Profile]
- Grace Taylor-Joyce -PhD student [LinkedIN]
- Hannah Bridgewater – Postdoc [LinkedIN]
- Richard Stark, Bioinformatician [LinkedIN] [ORCID]
- Dr Laura Baxter, Research Fellow in Bioinformatics [LinkedIN] [GoogleScholar]
- Dr Paul Brown, [Profile]
Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics
Contributors:
- Dr Mariateresa de Cesare, Postdoctoral Research Scientist [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Professor Julian Knight, Professor of Genomic Medicine [GoogleScholar] [Profile]
- Professor John Todd, Professor of Precision Medicine [ORCID] [Profile]
- Dr David Buck, Head of High Throughput Genomics [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Dr Angie Green, Senior Research Assistant [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- Amy Trebes, Senior Process Improvement Officer [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
- George MacIntyre-Cockett, Research Assistant [LinkedIN] [Researchgate]
Wellcome Sanger Institute
Contributors:
The Wellcome Sanger Institute has a large team working to support the COG-UK network led by Dr Cordelia Langford, Ian Johnston, Dr Alex Alderton, Dr Jeffrey Barrett, Dr Matt Berriman, Dr Mara Lawniczak, Professor David Aanensen, John Sillitoe and Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski.
Dr Ewan Harrison serves as Project Manager responsible for overall coordination of the COG-UK network.
The full of more than 300 contributors can be seen here: https://www.sanger.ac.uk/covid-team
Including:
- David Jackson, Senior Scientific Manager [Profile]
- Luke Foulser, Research Assistant [Profile]
- Katherine Bellis, Research Assistant [ORCID] [Profile]
- Sally Kay, [Researchgate]
- Matthew Dorman, PhD Student [Profile]
- Dr Mathew Beale, Postdoctoral Fellow [GoogleScholar] [ORCID] [Profile]
- Gaurang Patel,
- Maria Garcia-Casado, Advanced Research Assistant [LinkedIN] [Profile]
- Thomas Dibling, Research Assistant [Profile]
- Dr Samantha McGuigan, Health and Safety Advisor [Profile]
- Dr Hazel Rogers, Senior Research Assistant [Profile]
- Dr Adam Hunter, Senior Research Assistant [Profile]
- Emily Souster,
- Alexandra Neaverson, Research Assistant [Profile]
West of Scotland Specialist Virology Centre, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Contributors:
- Professor Rory Gunson, Consultant Clinical Scientist
- Dr Alasdair MacLean, Clinical Scientist
- Dr Igor Starinskij, Infectious Disease and Virology Specialty Trainee [LinkedIn] [ORCID]
Working with the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research
Wye Valley NHS Trust
Contributors:
- Dr Fenella Halstead, Clinical Scientist [ORCID] [Researchgate]
- Dr Venkat Sivaprakasam, Consultant Microbiologist [Researchgate]
- Wendy Hogsden, Microbiology Department
Core management team
Professor Sharon Peacock, Executive Director and Chair
Leadership Team
Professor Sharon Peacock CBE FMedSci is Executive Director and Chair at COG-UK, and a Professor of Public Health and Microbiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge. She is a world authority on pathogen genomics, antibiotic resistance, and a range of specific infectious pathogens. This includes Staphylococcus aureus (including MRSA), and Burkholderia pseudomallei (the cause of the tropical infectious disease, melioidosis). Professor Peacock is a non-executive director at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and holds a secondment with Public Health England (PHE) as Director of Science (Pathogen Genomics).
Dr Katerina Galai, Associate Director
Leadership Team
Dr Katerina Galai is Associate Director for COG UK, heading up communications, governance, strategic planning, legal and financial functions. She is a multidisciplinary scholar with research expertise in international law and cross-sector business experience. Before joining COG-UK, Katerina spent three years at RAND Europe developing a portfolio of qualitative research methods and working on a number of UK and European research projects delivering analysis, impact and recommendations to senior policy makers. She is a UK expert on the use and regulation of private military companies and she recently published a monograph with Routledge on the topic.
Beth Blane, Logistics Manager
Logistics
Beth Blane is the Logistics Manager at COG-UK. She is also a Laboratory Manager in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, and has been since 2012. Beth is a Health and Care Professions Council registered Biomedical Scientist, and previously worked in the clinical microbiology lab at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. She has worked on a range of projects including the surveillance of carriage and transmission of healthcare-associated bacteria in a long-term health facility, the study of nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus, and most recently the implementation of real-time whole genome sequencing of MRSA in a clinical setting.
Dr Andrew Jermy, External Communications Advisor
Communications
Dr Andrew Jermy has been working with COG-UK since March 2020 to prepare reports for the Consortium as External Communications Lead. Andrew gained his PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Manchester, UK, studying fungal protein trafficking and secretion. He subsequently spent more than a decade as a professional microbiology editor for various journals, including Nature Reviews Microbiology, Nature and was the Chief Editor for the launch of Nature Microbiology in 2015. In February 2019, Andrew left Nature to launch Germinate Science Consulting to deliver editorial, writing and communications services directly to the research community, through which he supports COG-UK.
Ellena Brooks, Administrator
Administration
Ellena Brooks is an Administrator for the Operations team at COG-UK. They came to the organisation through the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge, having previously worked as a Research Centre Coordinator for the university’s Department of Psychology.
Dr Nazreen Hadjirin, Project Support
Research / Administration
Dr Nazreen Hadjirin is currently providing project support to COG-UK, after joining the University of Cambridge as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in 2020. She obtained her PhD in microbial genomics at the Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Professor Mark Holmes. She had post-doctoral training under Dr Lucy Weinert in evolutionary genomics also at the Department of Veterinary Medicine. Her research interests include antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic pathogens, host pathogen adaptations and microbial genomics.
Dr Dinesh Aggarwal, Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Specialist Trainee
Research
Dr Dinesh Aggarwal is currently working at COG-UK and Public Health England to characterise SARS-CoV-2 importations, and has a special interest in transmission within care homes and universities as part of the Cambridge University Screening Study. Dinesh completed his medical degree from UCL and the University of Cambridge in 2013. He is an Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Specialist Trainee in the London Deanery and was awarded a Wellcome Clinical PhD Fellowship in 2020 to understand the biological basis of Staphylococcus aureus carriage under the supervision of Professor Peacock, Professor Danesh and Dr Harrison at The University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
Dr Ewan Harrison, Director of Strategy and Transformation
Leadership Team
Dr Ewan Harrison is Director of Strategy and Transformation at COG-UK, Career Development Fellow at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and a Senior Research Associate at the Department of Medicine and Honorary Senior Fellow in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, both at the University of Cambridge. He completed his PhD at the University of Leicester on the genomics and pathogenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 2009, supported by a Medical Research Council Studentship. His post-doctoral work at the University of Cambridge focused on the analysis of MRSA populations in animals and humans and tracking the transmission of MRSA in healthcare facilities.
Dr Catherine Ludden, Director of Operations
Leadership Team
Dr Catherine Ludden is Director of Operations at COG-UK, and is responsible for overseeing COG-UK operations, developing long-term operational strategies, coordinating public health investigations, and engaging with technical experts, collaborators and senior leaders. Catherine is a genomic epidemiologist with expertise in pathogen genomics, antibiotic resistance, and clinical microbiology. Prior to joining COG-UK, Catherine was working with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control where she provided scientific and technical expertise for the analysis and interpretation of European whole genome sequencing datasets and supported international outbreak investigations. She is a One Heath expert and was previously awarded a Sir Henry Postdoctoral Wellcome Fellowship at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to define reservoirs and transmission of antimicrobial-resistant Escherichia coli using a One Health approach.
Theresa Feltwell, Logistic Assistant
Logistics
Theresa Feltwell is currently assisting COG-UK with logistics support. Prior to this she worked with Dr Estée Török in the Department of Medicine at the University of Cambridge on a project in association with WaterScope. During that time, she was seconded to set up logistics to collect SARS-CoV-2 samples for local sequencing, feeding into infection control surveillance and COG-UK. Theresa had over 20 years’ experience working in microbiology research at the Wellcome Sanger Institute before joining COG-UK. She is currently studying part time for an MSc in Biomedical Science by Distance Learning.
Georgie McManus, Communications Officer
Communications
Georgie McManus joined COG-UK as Communications Officer in November 2020, after working in a similar role at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. Georgie graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Biochemistry, and following this spent three years as a Medical Writer in healthcare communications. She then established her own science writing business before joining COG-UK, through which she led a range of projects within the medical research and healthcare communication sectors.
Kim Smith, Administrator
Administration
Kim Smith joined COG-UK in October 2020 as an Administrator. Before joining COG-UK, Kim gained experience within event coordination and previously worked within Health Education. Her experience includes logistical and administrative organisation, communications, project and budget planning.
Alessandro Maria Carabelli, Postdoctoral Research Associate
Research
Dr Alessandro Maria Carabelli is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at COG-UK, currently focusing on the detection of SARS-CoV-2 mutations for public health benefit, coordinating and working closely with an interdisciplinary team at the Consortium (Mutational Analysis and Tracking working group). He joined the University of Cambridge, Department of Medicine as a Research Associate in 2020. His PhD was undertaken at Nottingham University, under the supervision of Professor Paul Williams. This focused on the physical microbiology of polymers that are resistant to bacterial attachment, and explored the biological-material interface using an interdisciplinary approach.
Principal Investigators (PIs)
Professor Andrew Rambaut
University of Edinburgh
Professor Andrew Rambaut, FRSE, is a Professor of Molecular Evolution at the University of Edinburgh. After gaining his BSc in Zoology from the University of Edinburgh and then his PhD in Zoology from University of Oxford in 1997, Professor Andrew Rambaut remained at Oxford until 2006. He then took up the Royal Society University Research Fellowship position and became Chair of Molecular Evolution in 2010. His research is focused on evolutionary and epidemiological study of viral pathogens of humans and animals. He is interested in the evolution of emerging human viral pathogens including Ebola, Zika and Influenza viruses.
Dr David Simpson
Queen’s University Belfast
Dr David Simpson is a Reader in the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast. His research applies molecular biology and bioinformatics to study vision and cardiovascular diseases. The aim of his research is to provide a better understanding of the causes of eye and vascular diseases. This is achieved by application of advanced molecular biology approaches to provide novel insights, enabling both development of new treatments and design of improved diagnostic and prognostic tests. He is Academic lead of the Queen’s Genomics Core Technology Unit and has applied his experience with nanopore sequencing to support rapid turnaround of SARS-CoV-2 sequences within the Belfast COG-UK hub. He is also applying a miniaturised library preparation protocol to facilitate high throughput SARS-CoV-2 sequencing on the Illumina platform.
Professor Emma Thompson
University of Glasgow
Professor Emma Thompson, OBE, is a Professor in Infectious Diseases at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research. She was recently awarded Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to the NHS during the COVID-19 response. Currently Professor Thomson is heavily involved in sequencing SARS-CoV-2 as it circulates in the UK as part of COG-UK. She is the local principal investigator for two vaccine trials running within Greater Glasgow and Clyde. In addition to her work with COVID-19, Professor Thomson’s main research focus is on emerging infections in Uganda, working closely with the Uganda Virus Research Institute and in the UK.
Dr Jeffrey Barrett
Wellcome Sanger Institute
Jeff is leading the Wellcome Sanger Institute’s Covid-19 genomic surveillance programme, and its contribution to COG-UK. The programme sequences and analyses samples from positive community (pillar 2) tests around the UK to help detect outbreaks and monitor for mutations that might affect vaccine efficacy. Prior to that Jeff studied the genetic basis of human diseases in both industry and academia. Most recently he was Chief Scientific Officer at Genomics plc, and before that Director of Open Targets, a public-private initiative to use human genetics to improve early stage drug discovery. He was a group leader at the Sanger Institute for ten years, where he focused on the genetics of inflammatory and immune diseases. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
Professor Judith Breuer
University College London
Professor Judith Breuer is a Professor of Virology at University College London. Research in her lab focuses on the application of next generation sequencing and phylogenetics to virus diagnostics and discovery. Her laboratory has pioneered whole pathogen genome sequencing directly from clinical material using targeted enrichment methods which obviate the need for prior amplification by culture or PCR, and have established the method as an automated high-throughput pipeline with associated bioinformatics. Her lab at Great Ormond Street were the first in the UK to introduce metagenomics for the identification of viruses in cases of encephalitis and are now using this routinely on many speciments. Professor Breuer is PI on Wellcome trust collaborative award exporing why noroviruses cause pandemics. She is Chief Investigator of the COG-UK Hospital Onset COVID-19 Infections (HOCI) study.
Professor Matt Loose
University of Nottingham
Professor Matt Loose is based at the School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham. A developmental biologist and bioinformatician, he heads up DeepSeq, the University of Nottingham next-generation sequencing platform. The DeepSeq lab is equipped with a range of sequencing platforms and provides services for research and industry. Matt has developed a range of tools for long read sequencing including, most recently, adaptive sampling which enables nanopore sequencers to choose which bits of a genome to sequence as they go. Matt leads the Nottingham COG-UK team and is supported by the local virology teams.
Professor Oliver Pybus
University of Oxford
Professor Oliver Pybus is a Professor of Evolution and Infectious Disease in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford. He investigates the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of infectious diseases, particularly rapidly-evolving viruses. He also develops new methods of genetic analysis based on phylogenetic, phylodynamic and population genetic theory. Professor Pybus is a Professorial Fellow of New College at the University of Oxford and a Co-Director of the Oxford Martin School Programme on Pandemic Genomics. He is a Chief Editor of the open access journal Virus Evolution, and holds a Professorship at the Royal Veterinary College. Professor Pybus and his team are (i) analysing the genetic lineage structure of the SARS-CoV-2 infection in the UK, (ii) quantifying the international movement and importation of virus lineages, and (iii) investigation the dynamics and evolution of virus mutations.
Dr Thushan de Silva
University of Sheffield
Dr Thushan de Silva is a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Sheffield, in the Academic Clinical Infection Group in the Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease. He has been an Honorary Consultant Physician in Infectious Diseases at the South Yorkshire Regional Department of Infection and Tropical Medicine in Sheffield since 2016. He also continues to be a Visiting Scientist and Principal Investigator in the Vaccines and Immunity Theme at the MRC Unit The Gambia at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and is an Honorary Associate Professor at the LSHTM.
Professor Darren Smith
Northumbria University
Professor Darren Smith is a Personal Chair in Bacteriophage Biology within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University. He directs NU-OMICS the Northumbria University DNA sequencing research facility and is the Microbial Environments theme lead for the Research England Expanding Excellence funded ‘Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE)’. His research spanning over 2 decades has focussed on the biology of lysogenic bacteriophages and their role in altering bacterial function and fitness linked to chronic infection of the lung and gut. He completed both Degree and PhD at the University of Liverpool. Prior to joining Northumbria University, Professor Smith completed postdoctoral research in both Stx-bacteriophage biology in the University of Liverpool microbiology department and the HIV pharmacology group, moving from Stx-phage biology to the impact of nanoformulation on highly active antiretroviral therapies used in the treatment of HIV infection.
Dr Derek Fairley
Queen’s University Belfast
Dr Derek Fairley is a Research Scientist at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust (BHSCT) and an Honorary Lecturer at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). He is a molecular microbiologist with a particular interest in translational research, diagnostic assay development, and applying modern molecular methods in clinical settings. He is responsible for developing new molecular diagnostic assays for detection, quantification and typing of bacterial and viral pathogens in the Regional Virus Laboratory. He led the regional Clostridium difficile and Pseudomonas aeruginosa molecular typing services for Northern Ireland, and is working to introduce pathogen genomics services for clinical and public health microbiology and virology teams. At COG-UK he is co-ordinating sequencing and analysis work by the Belfast sequencing hub, which is a collaboration between QUB and BHSCT, and provides sequencing coverage for all 5 NHS Trusts and 20 hospitals in Northern Ireland
Dr Erik Volz
Imperial College London
Dr Erik Volz is a Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, in the Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health where he studies infectious disease dynamics and evolution of pathogens. The aim of this work is to improve surveillance of infectious diseases using genetic data. Applications include outbreak detection, forensics, and forecasting epidemic trends. As part of the UK COVID-19 Genomics Consortium, Dr Volz contributes to analysis of genetic variants, outbreak detection, and modelling for evaluation of public health interventions.
Professor John Danesh
University of Cambridge
John Danesh is Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine and Head of Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, and also Director of the Cambridge site of Health Data Research UK and a Faculty Member of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. He holds a British Heart Foundation Personal Chair and an NIHR Senior Investigator Award. In 2015, he was elected to the Fellowship of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences. He trained in medicine at the University of Otago in New Zealand and at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia, and, as a Rhodes scholar, trained in epidemiology at Oxford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Dr Justin O’Grady
Quadram Institute
Dr Justin O’Grady is a Group Leader in the rapid infectious disease and foodborne pathogen diagnosis and detection research group at the Quadram Institute. He joined the Quadram Institute in April 2018 while maintaining his affiliation with the University of East Anglia. His research continues to focus on the molecular diagnosis of pathogens with the aim of translating this research broadly, in different sectors and diseases, to maximise community and patient benefit. He gained his B.Sc. in Microbiology, M.Sc. (Res) in infectious diseases molecular diagnostics and Ph.D. in molecular diagnosis of bacterial pathogens in food all at the National University of Ireland Galway. Dr O’Grady is the PI for the COG-UK Norwich sequencing site, where there is a large team of molecular biologists and bioinformaticians (led by Dr Andrew Page) that provide viral lineage information for hospital cases in Norfolk and parts of Suffolk (pillar 1) and for community cases nationally (pillar 2). They also work closely with PHE and Norfolk Test and Trace to provide rapid outbreak sequencing and analysis for the region.
Professor Neil Ferguson
Imperial College London
Professor Neil Ferguson OBE FMedSci is Director of the Jameel Institute and the Medical Research Council Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College London. His research aims to improve understanding of the epidemiological factors and population processes shaping infectious disease spread in human and animal populations. A key practical focus is the analysis and optimisation of intervention strategies aimed at reducing transmission or disease burden. Much of his work is applied, informing disease control policy-making by public and global health institutions.
Dr Sam Robson
University of Portsmouth
Dr Sam Robson is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth, where he is the Faculty Bioinformatics Lead, and Bioinformatics Lead at the Centre for Enzyme Innovation. He collaborates with researchers across the faculty on a number of different projects, in particular those utilising high-throughput next generation sequencing methods. He also helps to identify and develop enzymatic solutions to help solve global environmental issues such as the current plastics crisis. He has been part of the team that has previously identified an enzyme (PETase) able to efficiently catalyse the breakdown of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics. Following lockdown of University labs in March 2020, Dr Robson’s team worked in partnership with Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust to set up a temporary sequencing facility at their local hospital site for sequence the virus from COVID-19 positive patients. Since then, his team have partnered with the COG-UK consortium to provide whole genome sequencing coverage from NHS sites across the south coast. These data provide essential coverage to the COG UK surveillance program, as well as feeding directly back to infection control measures at partner hospitals.