Covid Connections: Big data in a pandemic world — how our data defies travel restrictions

Covid Connections

Big data in a pandemic world — how our data defies travel restrictions to go global

Wednesday 11th August, 18:00-19:30

Global gathering and sharing of data is crucial to track, understand and tackle the evolving threat of coronavirus. In the UK alone, vital new knowledge has grown out of data provided by many tens of thousands of people. With such vast pools of information, we’ll explore how co-operation, sharing and trust across communities and borders is key to making sense of it all.

Covid Connections are a series of free, virtual panel discussions, organised by Wellcome Connecting Science and COG-UK.

Based on COVID-19 and the role genomics science is playing in combatting the pandemic, at these events you will hear from the people who are making this happen. Panellists will be from across the COG-UK consortium.

COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK)

The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium works in partnership to harness the power of SARS-CoV-2 genomics in the fight against COVID-19.

Led by Professor Sharon Peacock of the University of Cambridge, COG-UK is made up of an innovative collaboration of NHS organisations, the four public health agencies of the UK, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and sixteen academic partners. A full list of collaborators can be found here.

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, represents a major threat to health. The COG-UK consortium was formed in March 2020 to deliver SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing and analysis to inform public health policy and to support the establishment of a national pathogen sequencing service, with sequence data now predominantly generated by the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Public Health Agencies.

SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing and analysis plays a key role in the COVID-19 public health response by enabling the identification, tracking and analysis of variants of concern, and by informing the design of vaccines and therapeutics. COG-UK works collaboratively to deliver world-class research on pathogen sequencing and analysis, maximise the value of genomic data by ensuring fair access and data linkage, and provide a training programme to enable equity in global sequencing.