Public Health Wales NHS Trust's Pathogen Genomics Unit: against COVID-19 ^Laboratory

Public Health Wales NHS Trust's Pathogen Genomics Unit
https://phw.nhs.wales/working-for-us/microbiology/specialist-and-reference-services/microbiology-services/pathogen-genomics-unit/

Public Health Wales NHS Trust (PHW) is the national public health authority for Wales. PHW works to protect and improve health and well-being and reduce health inequalities for the people of Wales. PHW is leading the national response to COVID-19 in Wales. PHW operates diagnostic laboratories across Wales and has been providing SARS-COV-2 testing in Wales. In addition, PHW epidemiology teams have been providing support across Wales to track cases and support management of the outbreak. Sequencing of Welsh samples is being undertaken by the Pathogen Genomics Unit (PenGU). PenGU was formally launched in 2018, and provides an accredited sequencing environment for a range of clinical pathogen genomics services for the whole of Wales.
The Pathogen Genomics team in Public Health Wales will be contributing to COG-UK by sequencing and analysing Welsh SARS-COV-2 cases. Data that is being generated is being fed back in real time to clinical colleagues across the NHS in Wales as well as feeding into outbreak management and planning within the Welsh NHS and Welsh Government. In addition to sequencing samples, the team are providing bioinformatics support to build production-ready pipelines for processing samples, supporting the development of systems on CLIMB for consortium use and leading efforts to enable metadata sharing across the UK.

Pathogen Genomics Unit is Partner of the global project 'COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium'
'COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium' is a collaboration between the NHS, Public Health England and other UK public health agencies, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, University of Cambridge and other academic institutions.

Project: COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium
Research Group: Cardiovascular Epidemiology Unit
Project Description: The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium aims to increase the current capacity for SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequencing in the UK. This sequencing data will be used to understand the epidemiology and spread of the virus, and to monitor and evaluate interventions for COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 genomic data will be integrated with NHS electronic health records and other existing genomic data to generate insights into susceptibility to COVID-19. From within the DPHPC, Professor John Danesh is a member of the COG-UK Steering Group, Dr Ewan Harrison will serve as the Scientific Project Manager and Dr Michael Chapman will lead the health informatics component.