Infectious Disease Community

The GA4GH-PHA4GE Infectious Disease Community of Interest aims to promote global cooperation, data sharing, and collaborative infectious disease research through implementation of GA4GH and PHA4GE standards.

The GA4GH & PHA4GE Infectious Disease Community (ID Community) brings together experts across public health, clinical genomics, pathogen genomics, research, and policy to collaboratively define and advance real-world infectious disease use cases for interoperable data standards. By uniting human genomics and pathogen genomics communities, the group serves as a venue for aligning scientific, technical, and governance needs in support of responsible data sharing for outbreak response, surveillance, and clinical care.

The ID Community provides a space to explore shared challenges that span viral, bacterial, fungal, and vector-borne domains. This could include harmonising metadata, connecting pathogen and host data, and navigating ethical and legal considerations unique to infectious disease genomics. Members identify priority gaps, articulate use cases, and co-develop practical resources that strengthen interoperability and implementation across regions and infrastructures.

As a bridge between GA4GH Work Streams, PHA4GE, and international partners, the ID Community works to reduce duplication, elevate regional experiences, and foster coordinated progress in infectious disease genomics.

PHA4GE

• The Public Health Alliance for Genomic Epidemiology (PHA4GE) is a global partnership dedicated to advancing the use of genomics and bioinformatics in public health. PHA4GE is a champion of open, reproducible, and accessible approaches that support stronger surveillance, improved outbreak response, and more equitable participation in global public health.
• The PHA4GE Data Structures Working Group develops standardised data models and formats for microbial genomics, covering sequence data, contextual data, results, and workflow metrics. The Working Group’s goal is improving interoperability, transparency, and reproducibility in public health sequencing so organisations can effectively use and govern their own data. The group collaborates on practical standards that enable reliable data exchange across tools, programmes, and countries. Focus areas include metadata standards, shared terminology and ontologies, results reporting formats, workflow parameters for reproducible bioinformatics, interoperability with repositories and platforms, and considerations around data security and access management. Learn more here.  

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Identified focus areas