COG-UK
Thank you to all the speakers, chairs, attendees and organisers of the very first COG-UK Showcase Event: SARS-CoV-2 sequencing to inform clinical care, public health interventions and policy decisions.
The afternoon was filled with an array of thought-provoking talks, covering stimulating topics and research areas related to SARS-CoV-2 genome sequencing and what it has taught us to date about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The event featured an exceptional line-up of speakers, covering the focal themes of mutations and their implications for transmission, disease severity, therapeutics and vaccines; genomic-informed evidence on transmission in specific environments; and an overview of SARS-CoV-2 lineage introduction and transmission.
If you missed the live event, you can watch the full recording here.
SARS-CoV-2 sequencing to inform clinical care, public health interventions and policy decisions
COG-UK Showcase event, 16th of December 2020
Draft Programme:
14.00
Welcome from the Director of COG-UK – Sharon Peacock
14.05
Opening remarks, Sir Patrick Vallance, CSA, England
Session 1 – Overview of the Four Nations Experience: lineage introduction and transmission
Chair – Rob Orford
14.10 – Scotland – Matt Holden
14.20 – Wales – Tom Connor
14.30 – Northern Ireland – Derek Fairley
14.40 – England – Meera Chand
14.50 – Summary and Implications for policy and practice – Deenan Pilay
15.00 – break
Session 2 – Overview of Genomic-Informed Evidence on Transmission in Specific Environments
Chair – David Crossman
15.10 – Hospitals – Estee Torok
15.20 – Care homes – Dinesh Aggarwal
15.30 – Universities – Ben Warne
15.40 – Sentinel surveillance using pillar 2 samples – Jeff Barratt
15.50 – The HOCI study – Judy Breuer
16.00 – Summary and implications for policy and practice – Gordon Dougan
16.10 – break
Session 3 – SARS-CoV-2 Mutations – Implications for Transmission, Disease Severity, Therapeutics and Vaccines
Chair: Ian Young
16.20 – Overview: prevalence, tracking and importance – David Robertson
16.30 – Mutations and transmissibility – Erik Volz
16.40 – Mutations and clinical consequences – Emma Thomson
16.50 – SARS-CoV-2 mutational escape from therapeutic convalescent plasma – Ravi Gupta
17.00 – Coordination of mutation data for public health use – Alessandro Carabelli
17.10 – Closing remarks from the Director of COG-UK, Sharon Peacock
COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK)
The current COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2, represents a major threat to health. The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium has been created to deliver large-scale and rapid whole-genome virus sequencing to local NHS centres and the UK government.
Led by Professor Sharon Peacock of the University of Cambridge, COG-UK is made up of an innovative partnership of NHS organisations, the four Public Health Agencies of the UK, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and twelve academic partners providing sequencing and analysis capacity. A full list of collaborators can be found here: https://www.cogconsortium.uk/about/. Professor Peacock is also on a part-time secondment to PHE as Director of Science, where she focuses on the development of pathogen sequencing through COG-UK.
COG-UK was established in March 2020 supported by £20 million funding from the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, administered by UK Research and Innovation. For more information, visit: https://www.cogconsortium.uk
