According to Marc Fiume, CEO of DNAstack, rapid international data sharing is needed to combat COVID-19 and future pathogens effectively. DNAstack has created Viral AI, a system for international data sharing, in which each contributor retains ownership and control of their data sets, but partners can query the whole of it.
“It’s a faster, more scalable model for how we might share genomics and health data,” says Fiume. A better picture of what’s happening globally should enable faster detection of variants and give vaccine manufacturers a better sense of what to target.