CTIS Chosen as Cloud Implementation Partner to Advance Viral Disease Surveillance and Research
July 2023. CTIS is proud to have been chosen as the cloud implementation partner to expand the NIH-supported SUNY Buffalo collaboration with the University of the West Indies (UWI) on its viral surveillance program.
Jamaica and the Caribbean region endure cyclic epidemics of mosquito-borne diseases, including Chikungunya, Dengue, yellow fever, and Zika. Ministries of Health (MOH) across the region constantly monitor the spread of these viruses and conduct routine surveillance for the emergence of pandemic strains of respiratory viruses including influenza and SARS-CoV-2. The University of the West Indies (UWI) in Jamaica plays a key role in viral surveillance as it houses the National Influenza Center which provides weekly reports to the Surveillance Unit of the MOH. In addition, it has Jamaica’s only Next Generation Sequencer which is used in both surveillance and research.
The partnership with CTIS will expand the work of SUNY Buffalo’s Global Infectious Diseases (GID) Research Training Program, led by Dr. Gene Morse and in partnership with Dr. John Lindo, Chair of Microbiology at UWI and Director of the National Influenza Center, Jamaica MOH, supported by the Fogarty International Center of NIH. Srikanth Uppalapati, CTIS’ Chief Innovation Officer leads the effort for CTIS.
The work will allow migration of virus surveillance data to the cloud to allow for deeper analysis by researchers and trainees from multiple UWI campuses and access to richer data for new research projects. At the same time, it will provide opportunities to increase working knowledge of data migration and data manipulation in a shared computational cloud environment for tomorrow’s leaders in medical virology, an essential feature of a robust training program in any field of global health.