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TRANSCRIPT
Mapping of WHO Collaborating Centres Related to
Public Health Genomics
The Initiative on Genomics & Public Health
Department of Research Policy & Cooperation
The World Health Organization
August, 2010
Contents
Figures ....................................................................................................................................................2
Aims ........................................................................................................................................................4
Background.............................................................................................................................................4
Methods .................................................................................................................................................5
Step one: Searching the WHO CC database.....................................................................................6
Step two: Consulting the responsible officers for further information...........................................8
Results ....................................................................................................................................................8
Communicable vs Noncommunicable Disease ................................................................................9
Geographic Distribution.................................................................................................................12
Functional Classification ................................................................................................................12
Conclusions...........................................................................................................................................15
Tables
Table 1. Sensitivity of Key Word Search. ................................................................................................7
Table 2. Disease focus of Collaborating Centres in noncommunicable diseases.................................10
Table 3. Disease focus of Collaborating Centres in communicable diseases .......................................11
Table 4. Functional classification of identified Collaborating Centres .................................................16
Figures
Figure 1. Overview of Mapping Process.................................................................................................6
Figure 2. Geographical Distribution of Public Health Genomics Collaborating Centres ......................13
Figure 3. Country and Regional Distributions ofPublic Health Genomics Collaborating Centres. .......14
Annex
Annex 1 and Annex 2 can be found in attached PDFs. Annex 1 lists the subject terms included in the
database search of Collaborating Centres. Annex 2 provide full reports of identified Collaborating
Centres related to public health genomics, including contact details, Terms of Reference and WHO
Responsible Officers.
Contributions:
Dr. Lixian Zhong (intern at The Initiative on Genomics & Public Health, Department of Research Policy &
Cooperation, WHO Headquarter) carried out the mapping of WHO Collaborating Centres and wrote the
report under supervision by Dr. Mikkel Z. Oestergaard (The Initiative on Genomics & Public Health,
Department of Research Policy & Cooperation). Robert Terry (The Initiative on Genomics & Public
Health, Department of Research Policy & Cooperation) provided feedback to a draft of the report.
Aims: The WHO Department of Research Policy & Cooperation established the WHO Initiative on Genomics &
Public Health in April 2010. The Initiative builds on the WHO brainstorming meeting "Genomics & Public
Health: What Role Should WHO be Playing?", which took place in the WHO Headquarters, 8th-9th
September 2009. As part of the Initiative, we have carried out a mapping of WHO Collaborating Centres
related to public health genomics. The results of the mapping will be shared across the Organization and
on the WHO Genomics Resource Centre website. Within the Initiative we expect to draw on the
identified Collaborating Centres in support of our agenda.
Background:
The concept of public health genomics was first conceived in the 1990's, and refers to the responsible
and effective translation of genome-based knowledge and technologies for the benefit of population
health1
. In this context, we define genomics broadly as the study and application
of information and technologies based on genetic sequences, molecular biology or cell biology. As
such, genomics refers to information and applications from genetic sequences and all down-stream
molecular- and cellular-based sciences and technologies.
The premise of the WHO Initiative on Genomics & Public Health is that genomics is a cross-disciplinary
field within public health and as such based in the wider context of the Organization's broader agenda.
The Initiative aims to be a WHO-wide Initiative and to work across communicable and non-
1 Alison Stewart, Philippa Brice, Hilary Burton, Paul Pharoah, Simon Sanderson, Ron Zimmern. Genetics, Health
Care and Public Policy: An Introduction to Public Health Genetics. Cambridge University Press (2007).
communicable diseases. The Initiative seeks to identify tangible genomics-based solutions that can
improve public health practice in developing countries, and to increase WHO and Member States
capacity in public health genomics. In this agenda, one initial step is to map the WHO Collaborating
Centres that work in the area of genomics. The WHO Collaborating Centres are institutions that show a
capacity to fulfil a function or functions related to WHO’s programmes or have high scientific and
technical standing with international recognition. Together they form an international collaborative
network that carry out activities in support of WHO’s programmes at all levels. There are currently over
800 WHO Collaborating Centres in over 80 Member States. More information on WHO Collaborating
Centres can be obtained at the WHO website http://www.who.int/collaboratingcentres/en/.
Methods:
The mapping of WHO Collaborating Centres (CC) working within the area of public health genomics
involved two steps. Firstly, we searched for relevant CCs within the WHO CC database, which is the
official source of information on WHO Collaborating Centres. Secondly, we consulted responsible WHO
officers of shortlisted CCs for further information on CCs. Our mapping focused on the current work of
the CCs as defined by the Terms of Reference, and we only included active CC. An overview of the
mapping process is summarized in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Overview of Mapping Process
Step one: Searching the WHO CC database
The WHO CC database is open to the public and is accessible through the internet
(http://apps.who.int/whocc/). For each WHO CC entry, it includes: title of the WHO CC; name of the
exact subdivision of the institution that has been designated, and its address, phone and email; name of
the head or director of the WHO CC (who may or may not be the same that the director of the entire
institution); date of original designation, date of last redesignation (if any); date of expiry of current
designation; who initiated the proposal for designation of that WHO CC (either headquarters or one of
the regional offices); name of the responsible officer; name of the counterpart; and terms of reference
of the WHO CC.
The WHO CC database offers convenient features for database management, including functions of
Search, Reports and Portal. In this mapping we primarily used the Search function to identify relevant
WHO CCs. Early exploratory searches in the database showed small sensitivity in data base searches, and
we therefore opted for a broad search strategy to increase sensitivity, although with resulting lower
specificity. The database has different categories for searching the database, which include: city,
country, director/head, expiry date, designation date, initiator, institution name, OWER, reference no.,
region, responsible officer, status, subject, technical counterpart, terms of reference, title, types of
activity. For our purpose, we searched in the categories of "institution name", "terms of reference" and
"title" for key words "genetics", "genomics", "noncommunicable", "birth defects", "family" (and
"families"), "mendelian" and "congenital". In addition, we also searched "subjects" for CCs that may be
related to public health genomics. The WHO CC database includes 77 subject categories. We included
the 40 subjects that could potentially be related to public health genomics. The subjects included in our
search are listed in supplementary Annex 1.
Table 1. Sensitivity of Key Word Search to Identify Public Health Related CCs. The sensitivity of each key word is
obtained by dividing the number of positive hits with the total number of CCs that came out of each key word
search.
Key Words No. of Search Results No. of Positive Hits Success Rate
Genetic/Genetics 33 27 82%
Genomic/Genomics 8 8 100%
Noncommunicable 13 0 0%
Birth Defects 2 2 100%
Family/Families 53 2 4%
Mendelian 0 0 N/A
Congenital 7 0 0%
In total, this preliminary search gave us 479 WHO Collaboration Centres. We went through the complete
list of the 479 Collaborating Centres by looking at the "terms of reference", "subjects", "types of
activity" and "WHO organization wide expected result" and decided if it is related to genomics. By doing
this, we were able to eliminate a lot of the hits and narrowed our list to 43 WHO Collaborating Centres.
35 responsible officers were in charge of these WHO CCs. More specifically, the search of the 40 subjects
gave us 449 Collaborating Centres (some of them overlap with the result of key words search). Of these
CCs, 38 of them were related to public health genomics, which gave us a success rate of 8.5%. Using our
key word search, we identified 106 CCs, of which 33 were related to public health genomics, that is, a
sensitivity rate 31%. The sensitivity of each key word search is shown in Table 1.
Step two: Consulting the responsible officers for further information
We asked three question to each of the Responsible Officers of the identified CCs: (A) if you know of
any other Collaborating Centres than the ones listed that might be relevant for our mapping; (B) if the
Terms of Reference for each of the Collaborating Centres (as described in the database) are adequately
describing the current activities and expertise of each Centre in its function as a WHO Collaborating
Centre; and (C) if you know of any persons or groups within WHO working in genetics, molecular
sciences or in areas related to the translation of research or technologies in these areas into clinical and
public health practice. The response rate from the Responsible Officers was 40%. From their answers,
we were able to eliminate and add a few more collaboration centres to our list, which then reached 46
in number. We also compared our list to the list of the WHO Collaborating Centres that the WHO Human
Genetics Programme has been using in their work (kindly shared by Dr. Victor Boulyjenkov and Dr.
Shanthi Mendis from the WHO Human Genetics Programme) and added 2 more Collaborating Centres to
our list (Reference numbers: CYP-1 and UNK-199). In total, we identified 48 Collaborating Centres in our
mapping.
Results:
To identify WHO Collaborating Centres relevant to public health genomics, we searched the WHO CC
database and consulted the Responsible Officers of shortlisted CCs. In total, we identified 48 relevant
CCs. Below we summarize results by outlining geographical distribution, functions and disease focus of
identified CCs. Annex 2 provide full reports of identified Collaborating Centres related to public health
genomics, including contact details, Terms of Reference and WHO Responsible Officers.
Communicable vs Noncommunicable Disease
We first categorized identified centres according to whether centres have a communicable or
noncommunicable disease focus. Public health genomics related Collaborating Centres in the
noncommunicable disease category usually work with human genomics or hereditary diseases. If a
centre deals with pathogen (virus, bacteria, parasites etc), vector (such as mosquito) genomics as well as
genetically engineered vaccine then we categorized it in the communicable disease category. None of
the Collaborating Centres focused on the interaction of host, pathogen and vector genomics (for
example in form of variation in host susceptibility to infectious diseases). 25 of the CCs have focus on
communicable diseases and 25 of the CCs focus on noncommunicable diseases. Two of the CC are
classified as both communicable and noncommunicable diseases: Australia Department of Health &
Ageing (AUS-42) provides consultancy in the field of quality assurance of both vaccines (for
communicable diseases) & other biologicals (can be used for diagnosis and treatment of both
communicable and noncommunicable diseases). University of Zürich (SWI-58) is focused on biomedical
and health ethics (both communicable and noncommunicable diseases). For both the noncommunicable
and communicable diseases categories, we summarized the disease focus based on the Title and Terms
of Reference of each CC, see Table 2 and Table 3.
Table 2 Disease Focus of Public Health Genomics related Collaborating Centres in Noncommunicable Diseases
Category.
Reference
Number Institution Name Disease Focus
AUS-42 Therapeutic Goods Administration Laboratories (TGAL) vaccines and biological
BRA-58 Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre metabolic disorders, SCD, cancer, birth defects and other
genetic disorders
CHN-64 Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences genetic disorders
CHN-71 Central South University drug addiction and some major mental disorders
CHN-87 Nanjing Medical University deafness
CYP-1 Cyprus Thalassaemia Centre for Community Control of Thalassaemia,
Ministry of Health thalassaemia and other haemoglobinopathies
DEN-50 H.S. Bispebjerg Hospital deafness
GRE-21 General Hospital thalassemia and SCD
IND-71 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) genetic disorders
ITA-36 Universita degli Studi di Cagliari haemoglobin disorders, diabetes, multiple sclerosis,
celiac disease and other genetic disorders
ITA-64 University of Pisa endrocrine disorders
ITA-88 International Centre on Birth Defects birth defects
JPN-62 Tokyo Medical & Dental University mental disorders
RUS-105 Ufa Research Institute of Occupational Health and Human Ecology occupational diseases
RUS-91 National Research Centre for Medical Genetics, Russian Academy of Medical
Sciences cystic fibrosis
SPA-20 Hospital Universitario San Carlos mental disorders
SVN-6 University of Medical Centre Ljubljana reproductive health
SWI-44 Université de Lausanne CVD
SWI-58 University of Zürich biomedical and public health ethics
UNK-132 Department of Health Informatics & Multiprofessional Education (CHIME) genetic disorders
UNK-135 University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Medical School diabetes
UNK-175 UCL Institute of Neurology neurological disorders & particularly epilepsy
UNK-199 University of Ulster congenital anomalies
UNK-205 University of Manchester chronic noncommunicable diseases, mental and
neurological disorders, violence, injuries and disabilities
USA-208 University of Pittsburgh diabetes
Table 3. Disease Focus of Public Health Genomics related Collaborating Centres in Communicable Diseases
Category.
Reference
Number Institution Name Disease Focus
AUS-40 Murdoch University parasitic diseases other than those specifically mentioned
and zoonoses
AUS-91 Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) influenza
AUS-96 Australian National University biomedical and public health ethics
CAN-58 University of Toronto biomedical and public health ethics
CHN-6 Chinese Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (China CDC) malaria
CHN-76 Second Military Medical University malaria
COL-12 Fundacion Centro Internacional de Entrenamiento e Investigaciones Medicas
(CIDEIM) leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis
FIN-24 Finland (THL) poliomyelitis
FRA-79 France (Institute Pasteur) poliomyelitis
IND-90 National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) rabies
IND-91 Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) zoonoses
ITA-49 Istituto Superiore di Sanita poliomyelitis
JPN-64 National Institute of Infectious Diseases influenza
KUW-4 University of Kuwait HIV/AIDS
LUX-3 Laboratoire National de Santé (LNS) measles
POL-18 National Tuberculosis & Lung Diseases Research Institute TB
SPA-30 Instituto de Salud Carlos III HIV/AIDS
UNK-103 National Institute for Medical Research, Medical Research Council influenza
UNK-126 Natural History Museum Schistosomiasis
UNK-144 United Kingdom (NIBSC) Poliomyelitis
USA-118 National Centers for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control &
Prevention (CDC) influenza
USA-126 National Center for Infectious Diseases (NCID), Center for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC)
smallpox communicable diseases other than those
specifically mentioned
USA-147 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, University of Tennessee influenza
AUS-42 Therapeutic Goods Administration Laboratories (TGAL) vaccines and biologicals
SWI-58 University of Zürich biomedical and public health ethics
¨
Geographic Distribution:
Figures 2 and 3 illustrate the geographical distribution of the identified Collaborating Centres (see next
pages). These 48 Collaborating Centres are from 22 countries . Africa is the only WHO region without
any public health genomics related Collaborating Centres.
Functional Classification:
Based on the terms of reference, types of activity and WHO organization wide expected result, we
classified each Collaborating Centres into several different functions related to public health genomics:
bioethics, policy, training and education, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, surveillance and basic
research. Of these 48 Collaborating Centres, 5 (10%) are related to bioethics, 25 (50%) related to policy
making, 43 (90%) related to training and education, 32 (67%) related to disease prevention, 27 (56%)
related to diagnosis, 21 (44%) related on treatment, 29 (60%) related to surveillance and 39 (81%)
related on basic research. For more specific details, please refer to Table 4.
We also specifically looked to see if the public health genomics related Collaborating Centres have focus
on developing countries and/or birth defects. 16 (36%) Collaborating Centres are located in developing
countries and work on domestic or other developing countries’ public health genomics related issues, or
are located in developed countries but focus on developing countries. 13 (30%) of the Collaborating
Centres are related to birth defects. This information is also summarized in Table 4.
Figure 2. Geographical Distribution of Communicable and Noncommunicable Collaborating Centres
Figure 3. Country (A) and Regional (B) Distributions of Public Health Genomics Collaborating Centres.
(A) Country distribution of Public Health Genomics Collaborating Centres. The number of Collaborating Centres is
indicated on top of each bar.
(B) Regional distribution of Public Health CCs versus all Active CCs. The blue bars are the percentage of Public
Health Genomics Collaborating Centres in each WHO region(regional Public Health Genomics CCs/total Public
Health Genomics CCs); the red bars are the percentage of active Collaborating Centres in each region (regional
active CCs/all active CCs, as of Aug. 14th
, 2010) AFRO: Africa; AMRO: Americas; EMRO: Eastern Mediterranean;
EURO: Europe ; SEARO: South-East Asia ; WPRO: Western pacific.
Conclusions:
Of the approximately 800 WHO Collaborating Centres, 48 Centres are relevant to public health
genomics. These Centres are located across 22 countries and all WHO regions, except for the WHO
Africa region. Half of the Centres are focused on communicable diseases, and the other half on
noncommunicable diseases. Almost a third (n = 13) of the 48 Centres are focused on birth defects. The
48 Centres together form a valuable resource for WHO and Member States across several functions in
public health genomics, including: basic research, bioethics, education, policy, and disease surveillance,
prevention, diagnosis and treatment. The WHO Executive Board urged in January 2000 WHO
Collaborating Centres to develop working relations with other centres and national institutions
recognized by WHO. Such multi-lateral networks have not yet been formed within the area of public
health genomics, but could potentially increase the use of the Centres as sources of information,
services and expertise, and could strengthen national capacity for training, research and collaboration.
Table 4. Functional classification of Collaborating Centres related to Public Health Genomics
Ref.
Number Institution Country
Noncommunicable
or Communicable Bioethics Policy Training Prevention Diagnostic Treatment Surveillance
Basic
Research
Developing
Country
Focus
Birth
Defects
Focus
AUS-40 Murdoch
University AUSTRALIA communicable no yes yes no no no yes yes no no
AUS-42
Therapeutic
Goods
Administration
Laboratories
(TGAL)
AUSTRALIA N/C no yes yes yes yes yes no no no no
AUS-91
Victorian
Infectious
Diseases
Reference
Laboratory
(VIDRL)
AUSTRALIA communicable no no no yes no no yes yes no no
AUS-96
Australian
National
University
AUSTRALIA communicable yes no yes no no no no yes yes no
BRA-58
Hospital de
Clinicas de Porto
Alegre
BRAZIL noncommunicable no yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes
CAN-58 University of
Toronto CANADA communicable yes no yes no no no no no no no
CHN-6
Chinese Center
for Diseases
Control and
Prevention
(China CDC)
CHINA communicable no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no
CHN-64
Institute of Basic
Medical
Sciences,
Chinese
Academy of
Medical Sciences
CHINA noncommunicable no no yes yes no no no yes yes yes
CHN-71 Central South
University CHINA noncommunicable no yes yes no no no no yes yes no
CHN-76
Second Military
Medical
University
CHINA communicable no no yes yes no no no yes yes no
CHN-87 Nanjing Medical
University CHINA noncommunicable no yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes
Ref.
Number Institution Country
Noncommunicable
or Communicable Bioethics Policy Training Prevention Diagnostic Treatment Surveillance
Basic
Research
Developing
Country
Focus
Birth
Defects
Focus
COL-12
Fundacion
Centro
Internacional de
Entrenamiento e
Investigaciones
M??dicas
(CIDEIM)
COLOMBIA communicable no yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes no
CYP-1
Cyprus
Thalassaemia
Centre for
Community
Control of
Thalassaemia,
Ministry of
Health
CYPRUS noncommunicable no yes yes yes yes yes yes no no yes
DEN-50 H.S. Bispebjerg
Hospital DENMARK noncommunicable no yes yes yes no yes no no yes no
FIN-24 Finland (THL) FINLAND communicable no yes yes no no no yes yes no no
FRA-79 France (Institute
Pasteur) FRANCE communicable no no yes yes no no yes yes no no
GRE-21 General Hospital GREECE noncommunicable no yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes
IND-71
All India Institute
of Medical
Sciences
(AIIMS)
INDIA noncommunicable no no yes yes yes no no yes no yes
IND-90
National Institute
of Mental Health
and
Neurosciences
(NIMHANS)
INDIA communicable no no yes yes yes yes yes yes no no
IND-91
Indian Council of
Medical
Research
(ICMR)
INDIA communicable no no yes yes yes no yes yes yes no
ITA-36 Universita degli
Studi di Cagliari ITALY noncommunicable no yes yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes
ITA-49 Istituto Superiore
di Sanita ITALY communicable no no yes yes yes no yes yes no no
ITA-64 University of
Pisa ITALY noncommunicable no yes yes yes yes yes no yes no no
ITA-88
International
Centre on Birth
Defects
ITALY noncommunicable no no yes yes no no yes yes no yes
JPN-62
Tokyo Medical
& Dental
University
JAPAN noncommunicable no no yes no yes yes no yes yes no
Ref.
Number Institution Country
Noncommunicable
or Communicable Bioethics Policy Training Prevention Diagnostic Treatment Surveillance
Basic
Research
Developing
Country
Focus
Birth
Defects
Focus
JPN-64
National Institute
of Infectious
Diseases
JAPAN communicable no yes yes yes yes no yes yes no no
KUW-4 University of
Kuwait KUWAIT communicable no yes yes no yes yes no yes yes no
LUX-3
Laboratoire
National de Santé
(LNS)
LUXEMBOURG communicable no no yes yes yes no yes yes yes no
POL-18
National
Tuberculosis &
Lung Diseases
Research
Institute
POLAND communicable no no yes no no yes yes no yes no
RUS-
105
Ufa Research
Institute of
Occupational
Health and
Human Ecology
RUSSIAN
FEDERATION noncommunicable no no no yes no no no yes no no
RUS-91
National
Research Centre
for Medical
Genetics,
Russian
Academy of
Medical Sciences
RUSSIAN
FEDERATION noncommunicable no no no no yes No yes no no yes
SPA-20
Hospital
Universitario San
Carlos
SPAIN noncommunicable no no yes no yes Yes no yes no no
SPA-30 Instituto de Salud
Carlos III SPAIN communicable no yes yes yes no No no yes no no
SVN-6
University of
Medical Centre
Ljubljana
SLOVENIA noncommunicable yes yes yes yes yes Yes no yes no yes
SWI-44 Université de
Lausanne SWITZERLAND noncommunicable no no yes yes no No yes yes yes no
SWI-58 University of
Zürich SWITZERLAND N/C yes no yes no no No no yes yes no
UNK-
103
National Institute
for Medical
Research,
Medical
Research Council
UK communicable no no yes yes yes yes yes yes no no
UNK-
126
Natural History
Museum UK communicable no yes no no no no yes yes no no
Ref.
Number Institution Country
Noncommunicable
or Communicable Bioethics Policy Training Prevention Diagnostic Treatment Surveillance
Basic
Research
Developing
Country
Focus
Birth
Defects
Focus
UNK-
132
Department of
Health
Informatics &
Multiprofessional
Education
(CHIME)
UK noncommunicable no no yes no no no yes yes yes yes
UNK-
135
University of
Newcastle-upon-
Tyne Medical
School
UK noncommunicable no yes yes yes no no no no yes no
UNK-
144
United Kingdom
(NIBSC) UK communicable no yes yes yes yes no yes yes no no
UNK-
175
UCL Institute of
Neurology UK noncommunicable no no yes yes yes yes yes yes no no
UNK-
199
University of
Ulster UK noncommunicable no yes yes yes yes no yes no no yes
UNK-
205
University of
Manchester UK noncommunicable no yes yes yes no yes no yes no yes
USA-
118
National Centers
for Infectious
Diseases, Centers
for Disease
Control &
Prevention
(CDC)
USA communicable no no yes yes yes yes yes yes no no
USA-
126
National Center
for Infectious
Diseases (NCID),
Center for
Disease Control
and Prevention
(CDC)
USA communicable yes yes no yes yes yes yes yes no no
USA-
147
St. Jude
Children's
Research
Hospital,
University of
Tennessee
USA communicable no yes yes yes yes no yes yes no no
USA-
208
University of
Pittsburgh
USA noncommunicable no no yes no no no yes yes no no