British researchers are developing a groundbreaking technology to monitor genetic changes in respiratory viruses as they circulate round the world. The system is to be used to pinpoint dangerous new variants as they emerge and act as an early warning system for new diseases and future pandemics.
The team, which is based at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire, intends to make the technology cheap, easy to use and capable of being scaled up to provide global surveillance of a wide range of viruses. Targets would include influenza viruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), coronaviruses and previously unknown pathogens.
