Ji Wang from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China presented at the Nanopore Community Meeting in Singapore this year on “Application and history of nanopore sequencing in helping China’s CDC system.” They described extensive network of the CDC in China with 3,000 units. Wang shared data from a survey of lab and automation equipment in the CDC system in China. Some units have virus sequencing capacities but others don’t. High-throughput sequencing is the most popular technology in the CDC system in China. The pathogen they are most concerned about is influenza, followed by SARS-CoV-2 and respiratory viruses… and then respondents noted sequencing needs. Wang explained the history of use of the MinION devices for virus sequencing. In 2019, they tested samples from Chinese individuals visiting Brazil. Wang found reads for fungi and identified the likely pathogen. As a sequencing expert, Wang worked in Africa setting up a portable sequencing lab. Their work has helped provinces set up and improve their pathogen sequencing efforts. With whole genome information and data from epidemiologists, they are able to track outbreaks. Wang and team are now tracking COVID variants in China.
