Project

Strengthening Environmental Surveillance to Advance Public Health Action

Acronym
ODIN
Code
41I03423
Duration
01 July 2023 → 30 June 2026
Funding
European funding: various
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Development of bioinformatics software, tools and databases
    • Metagenomics
  • Medical and health sciences
    • Medical metagenomics
Keywords
Bio-informatics wastewater analysis metagenomics Epidemiology
Other information
 
Project description

The ODIN project aims at strengthening capacity for genomics and bioinformatics database management skills for generating, maintaining, and querying large genomic epidemiology data sets in sub-Saharan countries. To reach this goal, ODIN will develop a genomic surveillance system relying on environmental monitoring of major communicable disease agents and antimicrobial resistance in community wastewater and other environmental samples containing human and animal excreta. In a socially and ethically acceptable anonymous manner, environmental surveillance systems follow the trends in prevalence and may detect the outbreaks of communicable diseases in human communities and to convey this information to key stakeholders for the efficient implementation of data-driven public health policies. A strong and innovative aspect of this project is the combination of various semi-automatic bioinformatics tools for the processing and analysis of genomic epidemiology data, disseminated through a visual dashboard, providing means for timely public health interventions. The ODIN project implements the three pillars of the One Health framework: human health, animal health and the environment, which is crucial for communicable disease epidemiology in resource and infrastructure-poor regions.