Empowering Genomic Surveillance for Sustainable One Health Solutions

Supervisors: 

Katie Hampson, School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, (University of Glasgow)

Paul Flowers, Univesity of Strathclyde 

Kirstyn Brunker, School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, (University of Glasgow)

Nai Rui Chng, School of Health and Wellbeing, (University of Glasgow)

 

Summary: 

Rabies is a fatal zoonosis that kills thousands of people around the world every year. Countries are now working towards a global target to eliminate human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030. As countries progress towards this goal, genomic surveillance promises to be an increasingly powerful tool for assessing impacts and investigating inevitable setbacks. However genomic surveillance has yet to be integrated within the animal health sector.

This project aims to apply genomic surveillance to re-emerging rabies foci in Latin America, in urgent need of transboundary coordinated response. Specifically, the project will capitalise on collaborations with local and national governments in Peru and Bolivia. The student will optimise and deploy genomic surveillance tools and work closely with stakeholders to inform programmatic improvements in rabies surveillance and control. The project goals are to provide both real-time recommendations for rabies control measures at the Peruvian-Bolivian interface and to more generally inform outbreak response, through a One Health approach integrating genomic surveillance into animal health and public health sectors.

The student will gain expertise in molecular epidemiology, become proficient in whole genome sequencing, interpretation of genomic and epidemiological data and will gain skills in interdisciplinary working with stakeholders, implementation research and translation into policy and practice.