The International Pathogen Surveillance Network (ISPN), set up by the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence , has set up three communities of practice (CoPs), each designed to drive progress in pathogen genomics surveillance.
The first CoP focuses on addressing the barriers to effectively leverage genomics data for public health decision-making, the second emphasizes strengthening emergency response capabilities using genomics data, and the third is dedicated to developing best-practices for wastewater and environmental surveillance. These targeted communities provide a structured framework for collaboration, ensuring that expertise is shared and applied effectively across critical domains to address challenges.
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CoP on Pathogen Genomics Data
The implementation of genomic sequencing into public health laboratories has demanded a parallel increase in bioinformatics capacity to store, process, share and integrate genomics data to effectively leverage its public health utility. The CoP on genomics data brings together 60 experts from across the IPSN network representing all WHO regions to envision a scalable, interconnected, and sustainable bioinformatics ecosystem that supports equitable access to pathogen genomic surveillance.
Since its inception in 2024, 'CoP Data' has provided a forum to identify gaps in the pathogen genomics data architecture and has prioritized discussions that will help address them. These discussions have included examining the benefits of and barriers to pathogen data sharing in emergency response, exploring the pathogen data infrastructure landscape, and considering efforts to support equitable access to computational resources for genomic surveillance. The expert group has also guided the development of an upcoming document on defining the principles and attributes pathogen genomic data sharing platforms should aspire to in order to deliver their public health function.
From these discussions, it is clear that an optimized data architecture is essential to support both local and global surveillance and to help the community to reimagine how genomic data is most effectively exchanged and utilized to drive public health decision-making. Addressing this data challenge should lead ultimately to a more effective response to current and future infectious disease threats.
CoP on Specialised Surveillance for Emergency Response
Genomic surveillance data is increasingly integral to public health decision-making in emergency response, providing insights into disease transmission and strain evolution and facilitating analysis of differential strain virulence that contributes to the evidence base for risk assessment. In August 2024, WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, determined that the upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and adjacent African countries constituted a public health emergency of international concern under the International Health Regulations (2005). To support this response, IPSN established the CoP on Specialized Surveillance for Emergency Response (SSER) to facilitate the coordination of pathogen genomics actors.
This CoP supports knowledge exchange among members, enabling them to address challenges and identify opportunities for leveraging pathogen genomics and wastewater surveillance in emergency responses. Within the pathogen genomics workstream, the group has focused on supporting harmonization and in-country deployment of the bioinformatics analysis of MPXV genome data to strengthen quality of the analysis. Additionally, the group is developing a guidance document outlining analytical considerations for MPXV genomic surveillance.
In parallel, the wastewater surveillance workstream convened experts over 5 sessions across 30 countries, to explore the feasibility of detecting MPXV from sewered and unsewered settings; to review the current uptake of wastewater and environmental surveillance (WES) for mpox response, and to discuss enabling factors for its use, and ongoing technical, regulatory and data utilization constraints. These efforts underscore the need for a more cohesive and consistent wastewater surveillance community for emergency response.
CoP on Wastewater and Environmental Surveillance
In June 2025, IPSN launched its newest CoP dedicated to the advancement of genomics in wastewater and environmental surveillance (CoP WES). The CoP WES aims to enhance global awareness and confidence in the WES capabilities and limitations for genomics, ultimately supporting policy-makers in making evidence-based decisions on how to tailor the use of genomic WES as part of their public health surveillance systems.
The use of genomics in wastewater and environmental surveillance has significant potential to enhance collaborative surveillance through pathogen detection and tracking, providing situational awareness and supporting early warning capabilities. Scientific developments have also resulted in an enhanced characterization of population pathogen diversity and faster detection of new variants. Yet genomics WES remains a nascent field hindered by barriers to progress, including a fragmented knowledge landscape, limited standardization and consensus on best practices, and uncertainty as to how the data can be leveraged by public health systems.
The CoP WES offers a structured platform for continuous collaboration and knowledge sharing and capture that tackles many ongoing obstacles faced by the field today. Drawing on existing momentum and activities of other leading experts and organizations in the genomics WES ecosystem, the COP WES will serve as a hub for evidence generation and curation, reducing duplication of efforts, amplifying successful models and creating new products to fill unmet needs.
Collaboration for effective global public health surveillance
Communities of Practice are powerful mechanisms for fostering collaboration, driving innovation, and addressing complex challenges in pathogen genomics surveillance. By uniting experts, facilitating knowledge exchange, and developing actionable guidance, these CoPs are laying the groundwork for a more interconnected and effective global public health surveillance system. Moving forward, the IPSN will continue to convene and strengthen these platforms to develop scalable, sustainable solutions that strengthen preparedness and response to infectious disease threats worldwide.
