GISAID - SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
News:
GISAID temporarily lifts ban on authors of Zenodo report
What's in the news?
● On
March 21, a day after GISAID (an open-access influenza genome database launched
in 2008) suspended access to all authors of a report posted on Zenodo, the
public database reversed its stand and lifted the temporary access restrictions
to all the authors.
GISAID:
● GISAID
(Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data) is an open-access database.
● GISAID
is a public-private partnership
between the German government and the non-profit organization Friends of
GISAID.
Aim:
● To
promote international sharing of all
influenza virus sequences related clinical and epidemiological data to
understand how the viruses evolve, spread and potentially become pandemics.
Objective:
● It
provides public access to the most complete collection of genetic sequence data
of influenza viruses and related clinical and epidemiological data through its
database (named EpiFlu).
● The
database is hosted by the German Government.
Launched by:
● The
World Health Organization in 2008.
Beneficiaries:
● Organized
and operated exclusively for charitable, scientific and educational purposes.
Initiatives during COVID-19:
● Its
initiative promotes the rapid sharing of data from all influenza viruses and
the coronavirus causing COVID-19.
● In
2020, GISAID entered into the global research effort to understand the virus causing COVID-19 disease, making available
over 2,600 genomic sequences that are modeled in real-time, helping to track
the movement of the virus across the planet.
● The
initiative ensures that open access to data in GISAID is provided free-of-charge to all individuals that
agreed to identify themselves and agreed to uphold the GISAID sharing mechanism
governed through its Database Access Agreement.