GISAID is a global science initiative and primary source for genomic data of influenza viruses and the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19. Since its establishment in 2008, as an alternative to sharing avian influenza data via conventional public-domain archives, GISAID is recognized for incentivizing rapid exchange of outbreak data during the H1N1pandemic in 2009, the H7N9 epidemic in 2013, and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. GISAID was recognized for its importance to global health by G20 health ministers in 2017. In 2020, GISAID entered into the global research effort to understand SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, by making available genomic sequences that are modeled in real time, thereby helping to detect viral mutations and track movement of the virus across the planet. As of June 2020, nearly 54,000 such SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences had been added to the GISAID database by more than 450 laboratories around the world.
Origin
The idea for GISAID was first discussed in 2006 with the call for a new global initiative on sharing avian flu data by a group of leading medical researchers from around the world to improve the sharing of influenza data and was announced in a letter published in the journal Nature signed by over 70 leading scientists including seven Nobel laureates. Scientists who collected DNA sequences for the H5N1 flu did not want to immediately upload these sequences to databases such as EMBL, DDBJ and GenBank, because those database are public-domain. The original intent was to upload GISAID sequence data to public databases within 6 months.
Mission
The Initiative has earned widespread international support around the goal of better understanding the spread and evolution of the influenza virus, its transmissibility and pathogenicity. With this goal in mind, the Initiative determined that scientists from different fields of expertise needed full access to comprehensive genetic sequencing, clinical and epidemiological data, as well as analysis from both human and animal isolates in order to better understand the virus and its potential mutation to a pandemic pathogen. The Initiative aims to provide developing countries with better access to scientific research and the development of potential pandemic flu vaccines to lessen its dependence on foreign aid. It is already hailed as a model for future initiatives. Greater transparency and more timely sharing of sequence data has been a goal of many researchers and stakeholders alike. The GISAID platform spans national borders and scientific disciplines, with leaders in the fields of veterinary medicine, human medicine, bioinformatics, epidemiology and intellectual property. This cross-disciplinary effort provides new means to communicate and share information, as each discipline has distinct interests but also shares similar goals. The Initiative came together to work around restrictions, which have previously prevented specifically the sharing of information on avian influenza, with the hope that more shared information will help researchers understand how viruses spread, evolve, and potentially become pandemic, anticipating that its EpiFlu database will be a substantial improvement over previously available databases, by promoting influenza data to becoming available more quickly and to a wider audience than has been possible in the past.
History
The GISAID Initiative was initially funded by Peter Bogner—a strategic advisor and international broadcasting executive—who serves as its founder and principal facilitator. Bogner has been directing the build-up of this platform by bringing together the world's leading scientists and stakeholders who are actively committed to accelerating understanding of this potential human pandemic by rapidly sharing scientific data and results. On 2006-01-28 Bogner met with US Secretary of Homeland SecurityMichael Chertoff at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and was told about the US Government's preparedness concept on dealing with the potential of a flu pandemic. Concerns about a pandemic scenario heightened. Since the inception of the Initiative, Bogner announced his plans to transition out of a day-to-day role as the Chief Executive of , to allow him to devote more time to working with the GISAID Foundation as its director. On 2006-11-20, the Initiative received the endorsement of both The Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences. On 2006-12-19, GISAID signed a cooperation agreement with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, which leads a Swiss consortium to manage the GISAID Database on influenza virus strains. Under this agreement, the Geneva-based institute is to provide services for the secure storage and analysis of genetic, epidemiological and clinical data. On 2007-03-28, Siti Fadilah Supari, Indonesia's Minister of Health, announced the Indonesian government supports the formation of the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Database following a high-level WHO meeting in Jakarta on On 2007-04-16, the reaffirmed its endorsement of GISAID stating it shares the same ideals regarding free exchange and responsible sharing of information of avian influenza and emerging infectious diseases. On 2007-04-17, the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina welcomes the creation of the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data for “it promotes one of the key values in scientific research: collaboration and integration between scientists in order to achieve improved outcomes for the benefit of human and animal health.” |thumb|left On 2010-04-20, the Federal Republic of Germany announced during the in Hanoi, Vietnam that the GISAID Initiative entered into a cooperation agreement with the German government, making Germany the long-term host of the GISAID platform. Under the agreement, Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer ProtectionBMELV, will ensure the sustainability of the initiative by providing through its Federal Office for Agriculture and Food the technical hosting facilities of the GISAID platform and EpiFlu™ database, located in Bonn. Germany's Federal Institute for Animal Health the Friedrich Loeffler Institute located on the Isle of Riems, will ensure the plausibility and curation of scientific data in GISAID to meet scientific standards.
Governance
GISAID's governance structure provides for several organizational bodies that operate independently of each other, with the aim to guard against bias in decision-making. GISAID's administrative affairs are overseen by a Board of Trustees expected to minimize potential conflicts of interest concerning GISAID's funding sources; Scientific oversight of the initiative comes from its Scientific Advisory Council made up of directors of leading public health laboratories including all six WHO Collaborating Centres for Influenza, and directors of reference laboratories for research on Avian influenza for the World Organisation for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; to improve the functional capabilities of the EpiFlu™ database GISAID's Database Technical Group, composed of experts in virus sequencing and bioinformatics, is representing the user community to interact with software and developers of tool for analysis.
Access
Unlike public-domain databases such as GenBank and EMBL, users of GISAID must have their identity confirmed and agree to a Database Access Agreement that governs the way GISAID data can be used. These Terms of Use prevent users from sharing any data with other users who have not agreed to the Terms of Use. The Terms of Use require that users of the data must acknowledge the data generators in published work, and also make a reasonable attempt to collaborate with data generators and involve them in research and analysis that uses their data.
Examples
On May 5, 2020 the Nextstrain project modified its distribution of a table that contained geographic locations for COVID-19 genome samples. This was because GISAID requested that the Nextstrain project stop sharing this file, as it broke the terms of use that say "You agree not to distribute Data to any third party other than Authorized Users as contemplated by this Agreement." The table code "gratefully acknowledges" the GISAID contributors and advises researchers to download data directly from GISAID.
Intellectual property
A difficulty that GISAID's Data Access Agreement attempts to address is that many researchers fear sharing of influenza sequence data could facilitate its misappropriation through intellectual property claims by the vaccine industry and others, hindering access to vaccines and other items in developing countries, either through high costs or by preventing technology transfer. While most public interest experts agree with GISAID that influenza sequence data should be made public, and this is the subject of agreement by many researchers, some provide the information only after filing patent claims while others have said that access to it should be only on the condition that no patents or other intellectual property claims are filed. GISAID's Data Access Agreement addresses this directly to promote sharing data. GISAID's procedures additionally suggest that those who access the EpiFlu database consult the countries of origin of genetic sequences and the researchers who discovered the sequences.
