• The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a myriad of opportunities and challenges in practicing public health genomics. The use of pathogen genomic data coupled with phylodynamic approaches in understanding infectious disease outbreaks has received greater attention.

• In this project, we aim to develop phylodynamic and phylogeographic models to a) characterize the early spread of the epidemic that include insights into the origin, transmission potential, transmission routes, and genetic diversity of the pathogen; b) understand pathogen spread across spatiotemporal scales within and between geographical locations, and determine the factors that have driven pathogen spread.

• These phylodynamic approaches utilize time-stamped pathogen genomic sequences; and associated meta-data. Overall, the project's goal is to translate pathogen surveillance into effective public health responses and interventions.

Lead: Venkata R. Duvvuri (Public Health Ontario)

Team Members: Samir Patel (Public Health Ontario), Jianhong Wu (York University)