The SARS-CoV-2 Sequencing for Public Health Emergency Response, Epidemiology and Surveillance (SPHERES) program is a new national genomics consortium that will coordinate SARS-CoV-2 sequencing across the United States. Large-scale, rapid genomic sequencing of the virus that causes COVID-19 will allow public health experts to do the following:
- Monitor important changes in the virus as it continues to circulate.
- Gain important insights to support contact tracing.
- Provide crucial information to aid in identifying diagnostic and therapeutic targets for the virus.
- Advance public health research in the areas of transmission dynamics, host response and evolution of the virus.
Presenters
Special guests included Gregory Armstrong, M.D., the Director of the Advanced Molecular Detection Office at the CDC and Duncan MacCannell, Ph.D., who is the Chief Science Officer of Advanced Molecular Detection at the CDC.Other Resources
- CDC SPHERES program.
- CDC’s Advanced Molecular Detection program.
- ASM Precision Public Health Fact Sheet and FY 2021 Request.
- Stakeholder Letter in Support of AMD funding in FY 2021.
- Coalition for Health Funding Blog Post—June 2019 “The Hot Zone Meets the Genome: Staying Ahead of the Next Outbreak through Advanced Molecular Detection”.