Shenzhen gene bank joins virus data program

The photo taken on Sept 6, 2016, shows China's first national gene bank, China National Genebank, in the southern city of Shenzhen. (Photo/Xinhua)

China National GeneBank in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, announced on Monday its strategic partnership with the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, a key player in global health security.

"The two sides will cooperate in managing, sharing and analyzing genetic data of viruses related to respiratory infectious diseases in a bid to promote the global sharing of virus data," said Wang Ren, director-general of the CNGB, a public nonprofit institution.

The CNGB, which began operating in 2016, is the first integrated gene bank in the country. It has played an important role in fighting the novel coronavirus since the epidemic began in China.

As of Wednesday, the CNGB has collected 178 sets of genome sequence data related to the virus, which is crucial to helping Chinese researchers identify, retrieve and analyze the virus quickly.

On March 11, the World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.

Currently, research teams around the world are working together to actively carry out research on the virus, including its natural history, epidemiology, vaccines, diagnostic reagents and therapeutic tools.

"It is a wonderful cooperation to combat the novel coronavirus as it is a common enemy for everyone on this planet," said Chen Jun, a senior doctor in charge of treatment of the infection at the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen.

Chen's two papers based on the front-line fight against the contagion were recently accepted by the WHO and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation respectively.

The strategic cooperation is expected to help Chinese researchers obtain direct access to virus data resources and richer analysis tools, while the genome sequence data of Chinese infections will also provide valuable research material for other countries, according to the CNGB.

"We have established a mirror station, which provides a bilingual (Chinese and English) access channel to the data for domestic users. And we integrate our virus data with the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data and update data synchronously," Wang said.

Thus, Chinese research institutions will step forward in studying the novel coronavirus and influenza data worldwide while complying with laws and regulations and protecting the rights of data producers and submitters, Wang said.

"The global sharing of primary virus information is helpful for epidemic prevention and control," Chen said. "It will also improve treatment methods and speed up vaccine development. Researchers can detect and grasp changes in the virus around the world at any time. This is necessary to fight the epidemic."

The Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, established in 2008, is the largest platform for international sharing of all influenza virus and novel coronavirus data. Its data originate from about 14,000 researchers at 1,500 institutes worldwide.

It has collected 855 sets of genome sequence data of the novel coronavirus.

On Jan 11, China shared the first whole genome sequence data of the virus with the initiative, which enables scientists worldwide to know more about the virus' origin and develop diagnostics.

"Through the globally shared data, we expect to achieve more scientific research results and apply them to Chinese epidemic prevention and control," Wang said.