Tonight, I continued watching the Oxford Nanopore Technologies London Calling 2024 expert panel on “Building a rapid, targeted, and responsive infectious disease system.”Aaron Pomerantz, the Global Segment Marketing Associate Director at ONT, facilitated the session. All panelists were invited to the stage after doing brief introductions. Rahul Batra from Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trus in the UK spoke about the difficulties of perfecting methods for clinical settings. Batra spoke about “learning as we iterate.” Heather Carleton from the CDC serves as the chair of PULSENet. Carleton spoke about how state and local public health agencies shifted from pulse-field gel electrophoresis to sequence-based workflows. Carleton spoke about developing validated sequencing for the identification of pathogens under CLIA. The process started in 2013 and was implemented for Illumina sequencing in 2019. Carleton also spoke about training public health specialists on the power and limitations of sequencing. Chuck Cooper from bioMerieux France noted that they start the process by asking about the value and impact for patient care. The regulatory process is not trivial, especially for new technologies. Ines Hassan from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change explained that one of the challenges is that investment happened during the pandemic but has faded. Hassan spoke about training and using instruments for as many applications as possible. Batra noted that in some cases we have to disrupt the regulators and the process with new technologies. Cooper said that in coming years we will need to consider specific patients and applications before starting the regulatory process. Carleton described how metagenomics approaches can help identify and characterize pathogens that may not be in current databases and surveillance systems. Hassan mentioned that to promote implementation and incentivize surveillance efforts, there may be ways to include commercial product developers. Carleton shared how PULSENet International has had to build trust with global participants and be transparent about data sharing. Carleton also addressed a question about aerosols and environmental monitoring. One example was monitoring bat caves for circulating viruses. The panelists continued answering questions from the audience. One theme that continue to appear was the potential for metagenomic sequencing for pathogen discovery and characterization as well as the challenges of validating and sharing methodologies.
