GMI13 Overview of Events
GMI Meeting
September 13-15, Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Vancouver
GMI13 will focus on the critical importance of equity and interoperability (semantic, process, systems) in developing a global microbial genomics data sharing ecosystem. The meeting will feature sessions that highlight other global genomics initiatives tackling similar challenges; international partnerships between high income and low-to-middle-income countries focusing on lessons learned for equitable data sharing; updates from public sequence repositories and surveillance networks; and Work Group breakout sessions focusing on the development of priority actions.
GMI Meeting Agenda
The draft GMI13 program is presented below, followed by session descriptions which provide further details.
The GMI Meeting Agenda is a work in progress. Please stay tuned for updates.
Day 1
| 8:30 – 9:00am | Breakfast & registration |
| 9:00 – 9:15am | First Nations Ceremony |
| 9:15 – 9:25am | Welcome, Opening Remarks |
| 9:25 – 9:50am | Reimagining the Microbial Genomics Data Sharing Ecosystem William Hsiao and Emma Griffiths (Simon Fraser University) |
| 9:50 – 10:15am | WHO Pathogen Data Sharing Recommendations WHO Guiding Principles for Pathogen Genome Data Sharing Vasee Moorthy (World Health Organization, Switzerland) Moderator: Emma Griffiths |
| 10:15 – 10:30am | Biobreak |
| 10:30 – 12:00pm | Data Sharing and Interoperability in Laboratory Networks 1. Enhancing Food Safety in the European Union by Connecting Genomic Data Mirko Rossi (European Food Safety Authority, Italy) 2. Interoperability, data structure and data sharing in the Argentina Genomics Network Josefina Campos (Argentina Public Health Network, ANLIS Malbran, Argentina) 3. Building pathogen genomics data sharing in PulseNet for Latin America and the Caribbean region Isabel Chinen (Pan American Health Organization, Argentina) 4. PulseNet International: Genomic Data Sharing in a Global Network Morgan Schroeder (PulseNet International and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States of America) Moderator: Marc Allard |
| 12:00 – 1:30pm | Lunch |
| 1:30 – 2:30pm | Keeping Gas in the Tank: Sustainability Round Table with Funders 1. Julia Abernethy (Wellcome Trust, United Kingdom) 2. Koko Agborsangaya (Genome Canada, Canada) 3. David Blazes (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, United States of America) 4. Inka Sastalla (National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, United States of America) Moderators: Finlay Maguire & Emma Griffiths |
| 2:30 – 3:30pm | The Proof is in the Pudding: Interoperability of Platforms and Tools for Infectious Disease Surveillance 1. Pathogen Genomics on the Terra Platform: Bridging the Bioinformatics Gap in Public Health Kevin Libuit (Theiagen, United States of America) 2. The IRIDA Platform and Data Sharing for Public Health Gary Van Domselaar (Public Health Agency of Canada, Canada) 3. Building Austrakka – Australia’s genomics surveillance system Torsten Seemann (Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory and The University of Melbourne, Australia) Moderator: Heather Carleton |
| 3:30 – 3:45pm | Biobreak |
| 3:45 – 5:00pm | Global Interconnectivity and Sharing: Updates from Public Repositories 1. Update on the NCBI Pathogen Detection Project – 1.5 Million Genomes Later Bill Klimke (National Center for Biotechnology Information, United States of America) 2. GenomeTrakr’s efforts to improve Pathogen Data Standards: Advancing Interoperability for Public and Private Repositories Ruth Timme (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, United States of America) 3. The EU COVID-19 Data Platform and moving forward to the Pathogens Platform Nadim Rahman (European Nucleotide Archive, United Kingdom) 4. Data custodianship in Africa: Towards an African Data Sharing and Archive Platform Alan Christoffels (South African Bioinformatics Institute, South Africa) Moderator: Josefina Campos |
| 5:00 – 5:15pm | Recap William Hsiao and Emma Griffiths (Simon Fraser University) |
Day 2
| 8:30 – 9:00am | Breakfast & registration |
| 9:00 – 9:10am | Welcome back William Hsiao and Emma Griffiths (Simon Fraser University) |
| 9:10 – 9:45am | Indigenous Data Governance Principles and Data Sharing Experiences 1. Taylor Morriseau (First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba, Canada) 2. Jillian Waruk (First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba, Canada) Moderator: Koko Agborsangaya |
| 9:45 – 10:45am | Genomic Surveillance and Data Sharing in Asia and the Asia Pacific Regions – Panel Discussion 1. Orapan Sripichai (National Institute of Health of Thailand, Thailand) 2. Yu-ping Hong (Centers for Disease Control, Taiwan) 3. Agnettah Olorosa (Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM), Philippines) 4. Mohammad Ridhuan (read1) Mohd Ali (Institute for Medical Research (IMR), Malaysia) 5. Angela Cornelius (Institute for Environmental Science and Research, New Zealand) Moderator: Morgan Schroeder |
| 10:45 – 11:00am | Biobreak |
| 11:00 – 12:30pm | Breakout Session: Exploring Tools for Equitable Data Sharing 1. Facilitating Ethical Microbial Data Sharing with Innovative Tools Nicki Tiffin (South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa) 2. Breakout Sessions for Tool Assessments Moderators: Emma Griffiths, Zohaib Anwar, Rhiannon Cameron, Michael Trimble, Nithu Sara John |
| 12:30 – 1:30pm | Lunch |
| 1:30 – 2:45pm | LMIC/HIC: Lessons from Joint Applied Genomics Projects Around the World Team 1: Sima Tokajian (Lebanese American University, Lebanon) and Andrew Page (Theiagen Genomics and University of East Anglia, United Kingdom) Team 2: Ebenezer Foster-Nyarko (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative, United Kingdom/The Gambia) and Heather Carleton (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Team 3: Ghassan Matar (American University Beirut, Lebanon) and Heather Carleton (US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) Moderator: Will Hsiao |
| 2:45 – 3:00pm | Biobreak |
| 3:00 – 4:15pm | Getting on the Radar: International Initiatives in Microbial Genomics Data Sharing and Standardization 1. PHA4GE: bridging the gap between public health and bioinformatics Alan Christoffels (Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology, South Africa) 2. Update on ISO 23418:2022 – WGS Standards for Foodborne Bacteria Errol Strain (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, United States of America) 3. European and global efforts towards FAIR+E pathogen data sharing Aitana Neves (Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Switzerland) 4. Adapting bioinformatics workflows in an ISO-accreditation environment for clinical and public health microbiology Kristy Horan (Melbourne Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory and The University of Melbourne, Australia) Moderator: Emma Griffiths |
| 4:15 – 5:15pm | GMI Work Group Priorities & Progress WG1: Joergen Schlundt (Global Microbial Identifier, Denmark) WG2: Bill Klimke (National Center for Biotechnology Information, United States of America) WG3: Ruth Timme (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, United States of America) WG4: Susanne Karlsmose Pedersen (Danish Technical University, Denmark) Moderator: Emma Griffiths |
| 5:15 – 5:30pm | Recap William Hsiao and Emma Griffiths (Simon Fraser University) |
Day 3
| 9:00 – 9:10am | Welcome back |
| 9:10 – 9:50am | Building Trust and Building Bridges: Academic-Government Partnerships 1. The Australian Pathogen Genomics Program – Implementing Genomics into Public Health Practice Benjamin Howden (Melbourne Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory and The University of Melbourne, Australia) 2. The Need for Human Centric Data and Technology Governance Rozita Dara (University of Guelph, Canada) Moderator: Kevin Libuit |
| 9:50 – 10:30am | Wastewater: “Treating” the data so it’s less shifty 1. Wastewater sequencing for genomic surveillance: Infrastructure implications and options Peter van Heusden (South African National Bioinformatics Institute, University of Cape Town, South Africa) 2. A Specification Package to Enable Sharing of Wastewater Microbial Contextual Data Jillian Paull (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Broad Institute, United States of America) Moderator: Emma Griffiths |
| 10:30 – 10:45am | BioBreak |
| 10:45 – 12:00pm | Thematic Breakout Discussions Theme 1: Data Harmonization Approaches Facilitator: Ruth Timme Theme 2: Data Governance Structure Facilitator: Will Hsiao Theme 3: Data Sharing Platforms Facilitators: Andrew Page & Gary Van Domselaar Theme 4: Sustainability and Funding Facilitators: Finlay Maguire & Peter van Heusden Moderator: Will Hsiao |
| 12:00 – 12:15pm | Announcing GMI14 – Barcelona, Spain Armand Sanchez (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain) |
| 12:15 – 12:30pm | Closing Remarks and Wrap Up |
Session Descriptions
Reimagining the Microbial Genomics Data Sharing Ecosystem
This introductory session will provide a thematic overview of the intent of the GMI 13 Meeting. Themes will include i) technical mechanisms and data standards for enabling interoperability, reproducibility, and comparability of results; and ii) frameworks for building trust and equitable benefit sharing.
WHO Pathogen Data Sharing Recommendations
The World Health Organization’s 10 year genomic surveillance strategy as well as recommendations for data sharing practices have been released. This session will provide an overview of those recommendations and provide an opportunity for feedback and discussion.
Data Sharing and Interoperability in Laboratory Networks
Laboratories can share data with public repositories, however, labs must sometimes share data first with trusted partners owing to institutional policies and data sharing agreements. This session will examine the challenges and successes of data sharing in some of those networks.
Keeping Gas in the Tank: Sustainability Round Table with Funders
Genomic surveillance programs are often catalyzed by one-time funding opportunities without long-term support. This session will explore the roles and responsibilities of government, funders and journals in developing sustainable models for genomics programs and incentives for data sharing.
The Proof is in the Pudding: Interoperability of Platforms for Infectious Disease Surveillance
Different laboratories can use different analysis and data management platforms for performing disease surveillance activities. Data and results from different platforms must be interoperable for effective communication and monitoring of known and emerging threats. This session will present some of the platforms available, and focus on how they contribute to the global data sharing ecosystem.
Global Interconnectivity and Sharing: Updates from Public Repositories
Public repositories as well as other data sharing platforms play a key role in connecting data providers and data users. This session will provide updates from repositories and platforms, and present discussions on interoperability, as well as the thorny issues of data access, attribution, and control.
Indigenous Data Governance and Data Sharing Experiences
This session will explore Indigenous data governance and stewardship principles as well as data sharing experiences in public health.
Genomic Surveillance and Data Sharing in Asia and the Asia Pacific Regions – Panel Discussion
This session will feature a panel discussion with representatives from laboratories in the Asia and Asia-Pacific regions to discuss the feasibility of integrating WGS into laboratory workflows and sustaining routine genomic surveillance programs.
Breakout session: Exploring Tools for Equitable Data Sharing
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for more frameworks and tools for ethical and equitable data and benefit sharing. This session will enable participants to evaluate some selected resources in breakout groups and discussions.
LMIC/HIC Partnerships: Lessons from Joint Applied Genomics Projects Around the World
The availability of resources can create power dynamics in collaborative projects, which can have consequences. Establishing trust, articulating roles, and empowering all partners in decision-making is key for successful and sustainable partnerships. This session will explore the lessons learned in successful joint genomics projects, as well as advice for how these successes can be replicated in the community.
Getting on the Radar: International Initiatives in Microbial Genomics Data Sharing and Standardization
There are an increasing number of organizations and initiatives with the mandate of improving the availability, functionality, distribution and interoperability of microbial genomics and bioinformatics resources. This session will highlight the activities of some of these organizations, and emphasize the need for global coordination.
GMI Work Group Priorities & Progress
This session will provide a brief overview of Working Group objectives and activities, and re-define current challenges and priorities in the post-pandemic world.
Building Trust and Building Bridges: Academic-Government Partnerships
Academic research and development can occur at a different pace, and under different circumstances, than operationalizing genomics programs in a public health environment. These differences have historically created barriers to academic-public health partnerships. This session will highlight success stories and the strategies employed to make them a success.
Wastewater: “Treating” the data so it’s less shifty
Wastwater surveillance is increasingly being used for early detection of emerging and existing pathogens, as well as other genomic determinants of concern (e.g. AMR). This session will examine the challenges of using wastewater data, and some potential solutions to these challenges.