“Open Science” and data sharing in the fight against pandemics: the case of pathogens genome data
Published: 27 April 2022
In the past 20 years sequencing technologies progressively became a fundamental tool for scientific research, especially in the biomedical field. The recent development of high throughput sequencing methods (NGS), represented a major breakthrough in this respect. Indeed, apart from a sensible reduction in sequencing costs and a massive increase in the throughput of sequencing, these technologies also provided the foundations for the development of novel analytical methods and approaches and a more “quantitative” and data driven study of biological phenomena.
The interpretation of sequencing data depends mainly on the comparison with pre-existing sequences databases or on the application of analysis/bioinformatics methods which apply interpretative models based on “reference” sequences.
Data sharing is a key aspect of scientific research and in light of the considerations highlighted above, sharing of sequencing data is fundamental to favor a correct and unbiased interpretation.
The last two years of COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted how pathogen genome sequencing represents one of the first lines of defense to monitor the evolution of pathogens and limit the spread of more dangerous variants, demonstrating once more how data sharing is essential for both research and public health communities. This notwithstanding we still experience several issues and limitations in the sharing of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence data.
For a more comprehensive overview of the importance of data sharing in pathogen genomic surveillance we invite our readers to refer to a recently published white paper by Cochrane et al that provides a comprehensive overview of the most important challenges and issues for the effective sharing of pathogen genome sequencing data. The paper is available at the following link.
The interpretation of sequencing data depends mainly on the comparison with pre-existing sequences databases or on the application of analysis/bioinformatics methods which apply interpretative models based on “reference” sequences.
Data sharing is a key aspect of scientific research and in light of the considerations highlighted above, sharing of sequencing data is fundamental to favor a correct and unbiased interpretation.
The last two years of COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted how pathogen genome sequencing represents one of the first lines of defense to monitor the evolution of pathogens and limit the spread of more dangerous variants, demonstrating once more how data sharing is essential for both research and public health communities. This notwithstanding we still experience several issues and limitations in the sharing of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence data.
For a more comprehensive overview of the importance of data sharing in pathogen genomic surveillance we invite our readers to refer to a recently published white paper by Cochrane et al that provides a comprehensive overview of the most important challenges and issues for the effective sharing of pathogen genome sequencing data. The paper is available at the following link.
