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sector_ico_Health_trans Human Health

Development and implementation of bioinformatic tools for HIV and HCV phylogenetic monitoring platforms

287PHY
  • Project Leaders: Jeffrey Joy, Julio Montaner
  • Institutions: University of British Columbia (UBC)
  • Budget: $1284797
  • Program/Competition: Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Competitions
  • Genome Centre(s): Genome Canada
  • Fiscal Year: 2018
  • Status: Closed

In the developed world, where epidemics are well managed, it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify remaining pockets of ongoing HIV and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) transmission. We need new bioinformatics tools that can identify communities at high risk of continuing HIV and HCV infection and be used to support the delivery of public health interventions and healthcare services. 

In this project, Drs. Jeffrey Joy and Julio Montaner at the University of British Columbia developed and implemented the "Canadian Phylogenetic Monitoring Initiative," a national initiative to identify and monitor new infection clusters within and between Canadian provinces and territories and share the results of analyses with public health officials while maintaining patient confidentiality and privacy. They developed new molecular epidemiology methods to identify new clusters, predict which clusters will grow, prioritize clusters for public health intervention and evaluate epidemic suppression. They also created tools for securely presenting and distributing results in an easily interpretable format to officials from Canadian public health agencies via interactive dashboards and PDF reports, which highlight geographic regions, populations, or demographics in need of intervention. 

Prior to this project, phylogenetic monitoring was not routinely available as part of public health practice, and as a result of this project, is now integrated into the Canadian public health system. It is proving effective in reducing HIV transmission and contributed to the end of the HIV epidemic in BC, which was declared over in December 2023. The project team has also supported the international community in the use of these methods for other jurisdictions, including in Panama, the United States, Australia, China and Argentina, resulting in BC becoming a global leader on phylogenetic monitoring for HIV.