The Origins and Future of Sentinel: An Early-Warning System for Pandemic Preemption and Response
Name
viruses-13-01605.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
472.82 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
cc93cb48acc9059eb71352cd3af43029
Author(s)
Botti-Lodovico, Yolanda
Nair, Parvathy
Nosamiefan, Dolo
Stremlau, Matthew
Schaffner, Stephen
Agignoae, Sebastian V.
Aiyepada, John Oke
Ajogbasile, Fehintola V.
Akpede, George O.
Alhasan, Foday
Date Issued
August 2021
Journal
Viruses
Publisher
MDPI AG
Citation
Botti-Lodovico, Yolanda et al. "The Origins and Future of Sentinel: An Early-Warning System for Pandemic Preemption and Response." Viruses 13, 8 (August 2021): 1605. © 2021 The Authors
Version
Final published version
Abstract
While investigating a signal of adaptive evolution in humans at the gene LARGE, we encountered an intriguing finding by Dr. Stefan Kunz that the gene plays a critical role in Lassa virus binding and entry. This led us to pursue field work to test our hypothesis that natural selection acting on LARGE—detected in the Yoruba population of Nigeria—conferred resistance to Lassa Fever in some West African populations. As we delved further, we conjectured that the “emerging” nature of recently discovered diseases like Lassa fever is related to a newfound capacity for detection, rather than a novel viral presence, and that humans have in fact been exposed to the viruses that cause such diseases for much longer than previously suspected. Dr. Stefan Kunz’s critical efforts not only laid the groundwork for this discovery, but also inspired and catalyzed a series of events that birthed Sentinel, an ambitious and large-scale pandemic prevention effort in West Africa. Sentinel aims to detect and characterize deadly pathogens before they spread across the globe, through implementation of its three fundamental pillars: Detect, Connect, and Empower. More specifically, Sentinel is designed to detect known and novel infections rapidly, connect and share information in real time to identify emerging threats, and empower the public health community to improve pandemic preparedness and response anywhere in the world. We are proud to dedicate this work to Stefan Kunz, and eagerly invite new collaborators, experts, and others to join us in our efforts.
MIT Department
Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/v13081605
