Genomic Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 Variants: What is the impact and why we need it now?

SARS-CoV-2 has been continuously mutating. The delta variant is now the dominant variant globally, and the lambda variant has already spread to 29 countries. Details about the evolution of the virus are analysed by epidemiologists to advise about incidence, distribution, and control of diseases. Understanding the evolving genome sequences of SARS-CoV-2 informs participants two important things – how the virus is mutating and how it is moving through the population. In this webinar, we will introduce the use of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) for virus variants surveillance. With public health interventions adjusted accordingly, we can control the rampant spread of new variants through the country and globally

Guest Speaker:

Prof Amin Soebandrio – Professor, Eijkman Institute, Indonesia

Chair and Moderator:

Dr Benedict Yan - Pathologist and Director of Molecular Diagnostics Centre, National University Health Systems, Singapore

Speakers and Panelists:

1. Prof David Hillyard – Professor (Pathology), The University of Utah, United States
2. Dr Safarina Malik – Head of Laboratory, Eijkman Institute, Indonesia
3. Dr Anurag Agrawal – Director, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, CSIR, India
4. Dr Sebastian Maurer-Stroh – Executive Director, Bioinformatics Institute, A*STAR, Singapore
5. Ms Anita Suresh – Head, Sequencing Programme, FIND, Singapore

ASEAN Dx Initiative Co-chairs:

Dr Sidney Yee - Chief Executive Officer, Diagnostics Development Hub, Singapore

Dr Jaime Montoya - Executive Director, Council for Health Research and Development, Philippines

This webinar is organised by ASEAN Dx Initiative, supported by ASEAN NDI, Diagnostics Development Hub (DxD Hub), National University Health System, and A*StartCentral.

About ASEAN Dx Initiative

The ASEAN Diagnostics (Dx) Initiative is co-chaired by Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD) and Singapore's Diagnostics Development Hub (DxD Hub) with the mandate to build diagnostic capacity among ASEAN member countries.

For more information – please visit https://aseandx.com/