GISAID data can help scientists build visualizations such as this one of the coronavirus genome.
PHOTO: MARTIN KRZYWINSKI/SCIENCE SOURCE
In December 2020, software developer Angie Hinrichs at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), applied for access to a labor-saving data feed from GISAID, a nonprofit database of viral sequences including those of the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. She wanted GISAID s data so she could display mutations on UCSC s coronavirus Genome Browser. That tool ties any position in the virus nearly 30,000-letter genome to other scientific information, much as Google Maps shows gas stations and restaurants near addresses.
With more than 700,000 genomes from more than 160 countries, GISAID is by far the world s largest database of SARS-CoV-2 sequences. Access to the free, nonprofit repository has become vital to Hinrichs and thousands of other scientists and public health agencies tracking the virus alarmingly rapid evolution.
Critics decry access, transparency issues with key trove of coronavirus sequences sciencemag.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sciencemag.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Singapore has punched above its weight in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic with the expertise it provided to enable the rapid sharing of genomes of the virus.
This not only helped the World Health Organisation (WHO) and governments around the world to respond faster, but also sped up the development of much-needed vaccines and diagnostic kits.
It has been a year since the first five fully sequenced Sars-CoV-2 virus genomes were made public by laboratories in China via the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, or Gisaid, on Jan 10 last year.
Since then, the sequence of more than 360,000 genomes of the virus causing the Covid-19 pandemic, submitted by more than 145 countries, has been shared.