GISAID
Global platform for sharing influenza and coronavirus genomic data.
GISAID, the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data, began in 2008 as a way to share flu virus genetic information. It later added the COVID-19 coronavirus and other pathogens, becoming the biggest global collection of COVID-19 sequences. The platform supports real-time disease tracking and genomic epidemiology to spot new viral strains as they appear.
Quick Facts
- Formation
- 19 December 2006
- Full name
- Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data
- Purpose
- Global health, research
- Headquarters
- Munich, Germany
- Method
- Donations and grants
Facts from the source article.
History
Before 2006, flu virus samples were collected by National Influenza Centers and shared through the WHO system, but pharmaceutical companies could then patent vaccines made from those samples. That year, Italian researcher Ilaria Capua refused to put her data into a restricted database and argued that H5N1 avian flu genetic information should be openly available. At an animal flu conference, she convinced others to sequence and release data on 20 virus strains. Peter Bogner, a German living in the United States with no public health background, read about Capua’s stance and helped create and fund GISAID. He later met Nancy Cox, who headed the CDC’s flu division, and she became chair of GISAID’s Scientific Advisory Council. The name GISAID first appeared in an August 2006 letter in Nature, proposing a Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (later changed to “All” instead of “Avian”). Under the plan, members would release data to public databases within six months of analysis. More than 70 leading scientists, including seven Nobel laureates, signed the letter. At the time, access to the latest genetic data on the dangerous H5N1 virus was often blocked because WHO member countries were reluctant to share their virus genomes and risk losing ownership rights. No formal ground rules for sharing were established in the letter, but the initiative moved forward.
Governance
The Friends of GISAID board includes Peter Bogner and two German lawyers who do not handle daily operations. The Scientific Advisory Council, which includes leaders from major public health labs like WHO Collaborating Centres for Influenza, offers scientific guidance. In 2023, funders such as the European Commission and the Rockefeller Foundation criticized GISAID for lacking transparency, and the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations withheld long-term funding. According to reports, Bogner stated that GISAID would soon create an independent compliance board to manage governance issues. Additionally, GISAID’s in-house counsel was working on new governance procedures meant to be transparent and to settle scientific disagreements without Bogner’s input.
Access and intellectual property
The creation of GISAID was motivated in part by concerns from researchers in developing countries, as a previous data-sharing system run by WHO forced them to give up intellectual property rights to virus samples, which were then used by pharmaceutical companies to make patented vaccines sold at prices many poor nations could not afford. In a 2022 piece in The Lancet, it was noted that scientists in North America and Europe sought unrestricted access, while scientists from Africa required sufficient protections for data generators. Unlike public-domain databases such as GenBank and EMBL, GISAID users must have their identity confirmed and agree to a Database Access Agreement that governs data use. The terms are weighted in favor of the data provider, giving them enduring control over uploaded genetic data, preventing users from sharing data with unapproved users, and requiring users to credit data generators in published work and make a reasonable attempt to collaborate with them.
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