Log in
Impact: BEAST software has widespread applications with impacts on public health policy, service provision and awareness, and in other contexts such as commercial disputes and criminal cases.
Beneficiaries: Public agencies such as health bodies and criminal courts; ultimately, global and local populations subject to infectious disease epidemic and pandemic outbreaks in which BEAST is used to inform the response.
Significance and Reach: BEAST is critical software that has been used to understand the spread of and to inform the response to global pandemics such as H1N1 swine-flu. It is also used to determine disease origin and transmission issues in specific situations (e.g. in criminal cases). The reach of this software is therefore both global and local.
Attribution: Rambaut (UoE) co-led the phylogenetic research and developed BEAST with Drummond (Auckland, NZ). The subsequent epidemic and pandemic analyses were variously led by Rambaut and Pybus (Oxford) and by Ferguson (Imperial College London).
Research from the University of Oxford has played a major role in the development of effective vaccines to combat the urgent worldwide problem of influenza. This methodology, licensed to AstraZeneca, has been used to prepare the currently licensed live attenuated influenza vaccine FluMist. Since its introduction in 2006 it is estimated that FluMist or other vaccines produced using reverse genetics have saved the lives of thousands of people worldwide who would otherwise have died from flu and its complications. FluMist has generated close to $1 billion income for the manufacturers (MedImmune, owned by AstraZeneca).
Oxford BioMedica is an established company in the rapidly growing field of gene therapy. Founded by Professors Alan and Sue Kingsman from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford, it develops, commercialises and manufactures safe and effective vectors for use in gene therapy. Its vector system, known as LentiVector®, is based on the Kingsman's research into the biology of a family of retroviruses known as lentiviruses. The company has a portfolio of over 60 patent families, employs over 80 people and has raised almost £150 million since its foundation. Oxford Biomedica's partners include the major pharmaceutical companies Novartis and Sanofi and its vectors are being used in clinical trials to deliver treatments for leukaemia, Parkinson's disease and disorders of the eye.
Professor Rima's research on measles and mumps viruses over 4 decades at Queen's University allowed him to play an important role in re-establishing public confidence in the safety of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. Claims that MMR vaccine could cause autism in 1998 undermined the vaccine uptake but Rima's expert testimony and that of others established in court that these claims were unfounded. This re-assurance and subsequent promotion of MMR vaccination reduced measles cases in the UK. In the USA, it also reduced the real risk that the Vaccine Court Fund, which compensates vaccinees for genuine vaccine related adverse events, would be bankrupted by over 50,000 claims amounting to between $30-50 Billion.
Recent outbreaks across Europe of Bluetongue, a viral disease particularly affecting sheep, have driven research at LSHTM by Professor Polly Roy and her team, resulting in the Bluetongue virus (BTV) becoming one of the best understood viruses at the structural and molecular levels. The research has ultimately enabled the creation of several promising new vaccines. In addition the Roy group has contributed towards exploiting virus-like particles (VLPs) as a method to produce safe vaccines against human and animal viral pathogen. The most advanced example is a BTV vaccine for livestock, which is manufactured by Boehringer Ingelheim (BI).
In genetic studies of human disease it is now routine for studies to collect genetic data on thousands of individuals with and without a particular disease. However, the genetic data collected is incomplete, with many millions of sites of the genome unmeasured. The novel methods and software (IMPUTE) developed by researchers at the University of Oxford predict unobserved genetic data using reference datasets.
IMPUTE has been adopted by the company Affymetrix in the design of custom genotyping chips. Affymetrix recently won the tenders by the UK Biobank and UKBiLEVE studies to genotype >500,000 participants, with a total study cost of ~£25M. The company states that IMPUTE gave their project bid a significant competitive advantage. Affymetrix also purchased the IMPUTE source code for £250,000. In addition, Roche Pharmaceuticals have used the software in their research on the genetic basis of drug response. The use of imputation has saved Roche ~$1,000,000.
The mathematical calculations for determining the likelihood of kinship between two individuals from their DNA profiles can be quite laborious and error prone, even when carried out by experts in the field. FINEX, an Expert System-based software programme to automate such calculations, was developed through research in Bayesian networks undertaken at City University London. The software can accurately and efficiently calculate kinship likelihoods within a minute or two, calculations that could take an expert half a day or more. The software was licensed to the UK Forensic Science Service (FSS), who used it among other applications to analyse DNA evidence leading to convictions for several serious and high profile criminal cases.
Researchers in the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology have developed a new methodology to analyse pathogen evolution. This `antigenic cartography' has led to the group becoming integrally involved in the World Health Organisation (WHO) influenza vaccine strain selection process, and has directly contributed to more accurate and appropriate flu vaccine design, with associated international impacts on disease prevention and public health (the flu vaccine is given to ~350 million people annually). The research has directly affected how public health professionals conduct disease surveillance and sampling.
Viral infections pose a significant risk of long-term disease and death to cats. In Europe alone, over 30 million domestic cats are vaccinated each year against three core pathogenic viruses. Research performed at the University of Glasgow has systematically supported the development of key technologies against major feline viral diseases. This work has delivered incremental but wide-reaching benefits to veterinary healthcare and animal welfare by providing: (i) reagents used in the diagnostic industry; (ii) viral screening services for big cat conservation programmes; (iii) developmental input into the creation of one of the most efficacious and widely used vaccines against feline leukaemia virus; (iv) testing of feline vaccines for efficacy and safety; and (v) development of best practice guidelines and training for veterinary practitioners on feline viruses.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and World Health Organisation (WHO) regularly report estimates for the prevalence of HIV and associated metrics for almost every country in the world. These statistics are essential for tracking the scale and the impact of HIV epidemic and are used routinely in the policy decisions and funding allocation decisions of national governments and international donors and therefore have a major impact on international public health. The methods underlying those estimates were originally developed, and continue to be refined and updated, by an international group of researchers at Imperial College London.