SUCCESS
STORIES
Improving in-country scientific capacity through training, engagement, and collaboration with public health institutions in West Africa to strengthen the public health system and create sustainable pandemic prevention infrastructure.
Sustainable pandemic prevention starts and ends with strong public health systems that are prepared to respond to new outbreaks, have the infrastructure and capacity to monitor pathogen outbreaks, and respond to emerging threats. While diagnostic and analytic technologies are important, pandemic prevention and response is driven by people on the ground. We are EMPOWERING scientists and public health officials in Africa with the tools needed to support sequencing, diagnostics, bioinformatics, and viral surveillance across West Africa, all the while developing public health partnerships to build local disease surveillance capacity.
Public Health Impact
Sentinel detects priority pathogens; connects public health officials to data streams using new analytic tools; and empowers health care workers with the training and resources needed to inform outbreak response in their local context
Sentinel has continued to evaluate the need and opportunities for impact on the ground across Africa to ensure the sites that we establish are well-positioned and outfitted to support disease surveillance in concert with existing ecosystems and organizations. We work to ensure our tools are flexible and easily adaptable to changing needs and tailored to be responsive to different pathogens of priority.
Capacity Building
We provide resources and best-in-class training supports and empowers communities. For this reason, the Sentinel team is deeply committed to providing education and training in genomics, bioinformatics, and outbreak science.
We work to invest in training for both early-career and experienced scientists, as well as training tailored for scientists and public health officials tasked with disease surveillance and public health response. In doing so, we are both responding to the immediate need for genomic and disease surveillance and bolstering genomic excellence for generations to come.
Pathogen Surveillance
As focus shifted from COVID-19 response to the monitoring of additional pathogens of interest, Sentinel also supported genomic surveillance for mpox, Lassa Fever, and other endemic pathogens.
Our DETECT technologies support the effort to help address the ongoing public health threats posed by endemic Lassa fever, yellow fever, and other hemorrhagic fevers in West Africa- enabling pathogen detection with CARMEN, SHINE, and pathogen sequencing.
