Blog
7 Oct 2022
Genomic surveillance at the point of sequencing offers huge potential to improve our response to emerging infectious diseases
The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated why we need sophisticated genomic surveillance processes in place to identify Variants of Concern quickly and efficiently. We spoke to Dr Matthew...
Blog
4 Oct 2022
Viral sequencing could be key in managing hospital-acquired infection rates as we learn to live with COVID-19
At the height of the pandemic, hospitals were shown to play a considerable role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2. Professor Judith Breuer and her team at University College London set...
Providing equitable genomic training globally: A recap from the Asia Pacific Advanced Network Workshop
In collaboration with Wellcome Connecting Science (WCS), the COG-Train programme organised the "Equity in training and capacity building for genomics and global health" workshop, which was held as part of...
“You realise how much you can achieve as part of a network” An educator’s perspective on COG-Train
COG-Train is an international educational initiative providing open-access learning in SARS-CoV-2 genomics. We spoke to Tracey Calvert-Joshua, an educator who took part in the third COG-Train online course.
Blog
17 Aug 2022
New research reveals how Omicron bypasses the human immune system
A new study by an interdisciplinary group of scientists and clinicians from across the UK has demonstrated that the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is capable of significant evasion from neutralising antibodies....
Blog
11 Aug 2022
Why the REACT programme provides a model for future pandemic responses
When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020, there were many unknowns about how SARS-CoV-2 would spread through the population. But what scientists did know was that effective surveillance...
“We kept learners engaged in a virtual setting” – Our COG-Train educators tell us about their experience
COG-Train provides open-access learning in SARS-CoV-2 genomics and is facilitating an increase in global genome sequencing and analysis capacity, reducing sequencing inequality, and helping to enhance pathogen surveillance. With two...
Blog / Events / Women in COG
18 Jul 2022
“Never underestimate the importance of building strong relationships” – In conversation with Professor Emma Thomson
Professor Emma Thomson, OBE, is a Professor in Infectious Diseases at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research. We spoke to her during our June Women in COG event...
Bioinformatics for pathogen surveillance: Launching our third COG-Train online course
Launch of our third COG-Train online course "Making sense of genomic data: COVID-19 web-based bioinformatics". Explore the tools for web-based SARS-CoV-2 sequencing analyses and learn techniques to prepare data and...
Maximising access to SARS-CoV-2 bioinformatics training: What are distributed classrooms?
COG-Train’s ambition is to provide high quality, open-access training across the world, on all aspects of SARS-CoV-2 sequencing and bioinformatics. Key to this is having a model which supports a...
Blog
22 Jun 2022
Development and deployment of a genome analysis tool to track seasonal human coronaviruses
The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that we have the ability to perform large-scale genomic surveillance of the SARS-CoV2 virus. Harnessing this capability could allow us to track and learn more...
Diaries of SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Training: in Conversation with COG-Train Educators
The recently launched COG-Train programme is an open-access educational initiative focused on providing impactful learning opportunities around SARS-CoV-2 genomics to a global audience. We spoke to two educators who took...
