Real-time analysis to track and predict pathogen spread


Richard Neher
Biozentrum, University of Basel


slides at neherlab.org/201709_USB_NGS.html

Outbreaks require a rapid and informed response

  • influenza virus (spanish flu 1918, "swine flu" 2009, H5N1, ...)
  • SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, coronavirus)
  • MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome, coronavirus)
  • Ebola (filovirus)
  • Zika virus (flavivirus)
  • ...

Human seasonal influenza viruses

slide by Trevor Bedford

Surveillance of human seasonal influenza viruses

  • WHO CCs and NICs sequence and phenotype 100s of viruses per month
  • Sequences allow us to track how the virus is spreading and changing
images by Trevor Bedford

nextflu.org

joint work with Trevor Bedford & his lab

Ad-hoc response to other diseases

  • Outbreaks occur in unpredictable places
  • Can spread across the globe in weeks
  • Different pathogens require different microbiological expertise
  • Sequencing is a universal way to investigate early spread and source of the pathogen

Challenges in rapid outbreak sequencing

  • sample → DNA to sequence
  • sequencing itself not too big a problem
  • combining data from different sources
  • convincing groups to share and pool their data
  • rapid analysis and dissemination of results
Raymond Koundouno, image by Sophie Darrafour

nextstrain.org

joint work with Trevor Bedford & his lab

NextStrain architecture

Using treetime to rapidly compute timetrees

Why are bacteria harder?

  • Much larger genomes
  • Slower evolution
  • horizontal transfer
  • The most important parts are often hardest to analyze

Pan-genome analysis of fragmented WGS assemblies

pangenome.de

Virus evolution takes place within the host

Deep longitudinal sampling is necessary to monitor evolution in detail

Evolution of HIV


  • Chimp → human transmission ~1900 gave rise to HIV-1 group M
  • Diversified into subtypes that are ~20% different
  • evolves at a rate of about 0.1% per year
image: Sharp and Hahn, CSH Persp. Med.

HIV-1 evolution within one individual



silouhette: clipartfest.com, Zanini at al, 2015. Collaboration with Jan Albert and his group

Accuracy of minor variant frequencies

Population sequencing to track all mutations above 1%

Zanini et al, eLife, 2015

Sharing of HIV-1 data

  • NGS data requires extensive filtering/cleaning/processing
  • Raw reads in short read archive often not helpful
  • Especially true for structured data sets
  • hiv.biozentrum.unibas.ch

HIV acknowledgments

  • Fabio Zanini
  • Jan Albert
  • Johanna Brodin
  • Christa Lanz
  • Göran Bratt
  • Lina Thebo
  • Vadim Puller

nextstrain.org team and panX


  • Colin Megill
  • Trevor Bedford
  • James Hadfield
  • Sidney Bell
  • Wei Ding
  • Pavel Sagulenko