CompletedPublic Health & HealthcareInfection & Immunity
NIHR Global Health Research Group on the Application of Genomics and Modelling to the Control of Virus Pathogens (GeMVi) in East Africa at the University of Warwick.
A team at the University of Warwick is joining forces with a major Kenyan research programme to combine pathogen genomics with mathematical modelling, aiming to give East African health officials faster, more precise tools to track and control viral outbreaks. Current disease surveillance in the region often relies on slow, fragmented data. This project addresses that gap by training a new generation of epidemiologists to use both genomic sequencing—reading the genetic code of viruses like dengue or chikungunya—and predictive models that forecast how an outbreak will spread. The central partnership links Warwick’s Zeeman Institute, which already advises the UK government on vaccine policy, with the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kenya, a regional hub for genomic surveillance. If successful, the group will produce locally trained experts and open-source analytical methods that public-health agencies can use to decide, in real time, where to deploy limited resources such as vaccines or hospital beds. The work is applied and policy-focused: it builds on existing modelling for neglected tropical diseases and livestock control, extending those techniques to viral pathogens that cause seasonal epidemics across East Africa.
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a) Building on strategic objectives of the host institution. The proposed GHRG will be led from the Zeeman Institute (ZI) for Systems Biology & Infectious Disease Epidemiology Research (SBIDER) and School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick (UoW), but will be driven by a central partnership between UoW and the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP) in Kenya. KWTRP and ZI are both leading groups in two key approaches in modern epidemiology, namely mathematical modelling and pathogen genomics. Separately they can act as regional hubs providing training to the next generation of epidemiologists; together they can generate new understanding and methodologies by combining these two fields of expertise. UoW’s organisational values are Excellence of Research, Making a Difference and having a Global Perspective, which mesh with the aims of our GHRG. UoW is a world-leader in key areas of impactful research, epitomised by its targeting of ‘Science & Technology for Health’, International Development’ and ‘Sustainable Cities’ as Global Research Priorities. The university also has a strong ethos of outreach to low-income settings, with ‘Warwick in Africa’ being a flag-ship initiative for campus-wide involvement in African education programmes. UoW is committed to international collaborations and views modern predictive epidemiology as a key strength through which this can be realised. SBIDER is renowned for its development of quantitative methods in infectious disease epidemiology and areas of systems biology. It has a strong focus on science for policy, with expertise in cost effectiveness modelling for vaccination, control of livestock diseases, and the elimination of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). UoW has long-standing links to KWTRP, primarily through James Nokes, but also involving multiple members of staff being involved in research projects, co-supervising Kenyan PhD students and academic visits to the facility. This collaboration will be widened and strengthened by this award. b) Why the institution is well-placed to be making this application UoW is renowned for its research in Maths & Statistics (3rd in REF 2014) and Computer Science (2nd in REF); and has a reputation for bringing these quantitative methods to bear on problems in epidemiology, systems biology and bioinformatics, through detailed collaborations with applied researchers in the flourishing Warwick Medical School and School of Life Sciences with their expertise in health sciences, microbiology and infection. UoW is also renowned for its high-quality training in areas of applied quantitative research, exemplified by: Maths for Real World Systems Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) (Maths), OxWaSP DTC (Statistics), MRC Doctoral Training Partnership in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research (Warwick Medical School), and the Midlands Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership (Life Sciences). SBIDER has world-leading expertise in the development of predictive models for public-health planning and policy. This builds on the superb international reputation of the mathematics, statistics and computer science departments for high-quality quantitative research, and emphasises the critical link between real-world data, clinical experience and prediction. SBIDER also has strong links across campus to Life Sciences, Medicine, Social Sciences and Policy. It has 17 academic staff with interests in public-health, over 20 Post-Doctoral Research Associates and a similar number of PhD students. Two pieces of work highlight our approach and strengths: we provide the UK Department of Health with second-opinion modelling and economic evaluation for vaccination; while for the past 4 years we have hosted the NTD modelling consortium, predicting the impacts of disease control in LMIC. (c ) Links to existing partnerships, complementary investment, and strengthening and sustaining capacity and capability The central collaborative
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