GISAID

GISAID (/ˈɡɪseɪd/), the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, previously the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data, is a global science initiative established in 2008 to provide access to genomic data of influenza viruses. The database was expanded to include the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as other pathogens. The database has been described as "the world's largest repository of COVID-19 sequences". GISAID facilitates genomic epidemiology and real-time surveillance to monitor the emergence of new COVID-19 viral strains across the planet.

Since its establishment as an alternative to sharing avian influenza data via conventional public-domain archives, GISAID has facilitated the exchange of outbreak genome data during the H1N1 pandemic in 2009, the H7N9 epidemic in 2013, the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022–2023 mpox outbreak.

Since 1952, influenza strains had been collected by National Influenza Centers (NICs) and distributed through the WHO's Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS). Countries provided samples to the WHO but the data was then shared with them for free with pharmaceutical companies who could patent vaccines produced from the samples. Beginning in January 2006, Italian researcher Ilaria Capua refused to upload her data to a closed database and called for genomic data on H5N1 avian influenza to be in the public domain. At a conference of the OIE/FAO Network of Expertise on Animal Influenza, Capua persuaded participants to agree to each sequence and release data on 20 strains of influenza. Some scientists had concerns about sharing their data in case others published scientific papers using the data before them, but Capua dismissed this telling Science "What is more important? Another paper for Ilaria Capua's team or addressing a major health threat? Let's get our priorities straight." Peter Bogner, a German in his 40s based in the US and who previously had no experience in public health, read an article about Capua's call and helped to found and fund GISAID. Bogner met Nancy Cox, who was then leading the US Centers for Disease Control's influenza division at a conference, and Cox went on to chair GISAID's Scientific Advisory Council.

The acronym GISAID was coined in a correspondence letter published in the journal Nature in August 2006, putting forward an initial aspiration of creating a consortium for a new Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (later, "All" would replace "Avian"), whereby its members would release data in publicly available databases up to six months after analysis and validation. Initially the organisation collaborated with the Australian non-profit organization Cambia and the Creative Commons project Science Commons. Although no essential ground rules for sharing were established, the correspondence letter was signed by over 70 leading scientists, including seven Nobel laureates, because access to the most current genetic data for the highly pathogenic H5N1 zoonotic virus was often restricted, in part due to the hesitancy of World Health Organization member states to share their virus genomes and put ownership rights at risk.

Towards the end of 2006, Indonesia announced it would not share samples of avian flu with the WHO which led to a global health crisis due to an ongoing epidemic. By October 2006, Indonesia had agreed to share their data with GISAID, which their health minister considered to have a "fair and transparent" mechanism for sharing data. It was one of the first countries to do so. In February 2007, GISAID and the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) announced a cooperation agreement, with the SIB building and administering the EpiFlu database on behalf of GISAID. Ultimately, GISAID was launched in May 2008 in Geneva on the occasion of the 61st World Health Assembly, as a registration-based database rather than a consortium.

In 2009 SIB disconnected the database from the GISAID portal over a contract dispute, resulting in litigation. In April 2010 the Federal Republic of Germany announced during the 7th International Ministerial Conference on Avian and Pandemic Influenza in Hanoi, Vietnam, that GISAID had entered into a cooperation agreement with the German government, making Germany the long-term host of the GISAID platform. Under the agreement, Germany's Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection was to ensure the sustainability of the initiative by providing technical hosting facilities, and the Federal Institute for Animal Health, the Friedrich Loeffler Institute, was to ensure the plausibility and curation of scientific data in GISAID. By 2021, the ministry was no longer involved with either database hosting nor curation. In 2013 GISAID dissolved a nonprofit organisation based in Washington DC and the organisation began to be operated by a German association called Freunde von GISAID (Friends of GISAID).

Some of the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences were released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and shared through GISAID in mid January 2020. Since 2020, millions of SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences have been uploaded to the GISAID database.

In 2022, GISAID added Mpox virus and Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to the list of pathogens supported by its database. Indonesia's Ministry of Health announced in November 2023 the establishment of GISAID Academy in Bali, to focus on bioinformatics education, advance pathogen genomic surveillance, and increased regional response capacity.