NDWG activities in support of data sharing

Presentations and meeting reports are available here.

Facilitating coordination of TB diagnostic research: NDWG workshop on sequencing data sharing

On 3-4 February 2014, the New Diagnostics Working Group held a workshop on "Enabling standards and sharing of data on the molecular basis of drug resistance" in London, UK. The event was jointly organized with the Critical Path to TB Drug Regimens (CPTR).The meeting aimed at establishing standards for the exchange of next generation sequencing data and for the combination with phenotypic DST results and clinical outcome. Participants also discussed possible mechanisms for sharing and making accessible this data to test developers, researchers, clinicians, and institutions performing diagnostics for treatment. This meeting is a successful example of how the NDWG provides a neutral coordination platform for multiple stakeholders in TB diagnostic R&D, thus playing a central convening role.

NDWG Co-Chairs, Dr Daniela Cirillo, San Raffaele Research Institute, and Dr Mark Perkins, FIND, chaired the meeting, which attracted 55 invited participants. These included experts from different backgrounds, such as TB sequencing groups, TB reference laboratories, TB clinicians, software developers, test developers, diagnostics industry, patent attorney, funding bodies, WHO, US CDC, ECDC, the European Commission, PHE and NGOs. The two-day workshop comprised of information sharing through presentations from attendees and circulation of published documents. The format of the event enabled focused debate in breakout groups and several plenary discussions aimed at consensus building.

The agenda and presentations are available under Meetings.