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The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford launches pioneering Pathogen Programme to tackle infectious diseases

The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford proudly announces the launch of its groundbreaking initiative, led by Dr. Emma Stanton, aimed at developing a global, "Always-On" pathogen monitoring ecosystem.November 7, 2024 — Editorial Team

  • The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford launches its first initiative, the Pathogen Programme, aiming to create a global, "Always-On" pathogen monitoring ecosystem to reduce infectious disease deaths, lessen the economic burden of disease, and combat antimicrobial resistance through advanced diagnostics and precision medicine.

  • Led by CEO Dr Emma Stanton, in partnership with Principal Scientist Professor Gil McVean, the Pathogen Programme will focus on developing end-to-end diagnostic solutions, AMR detection tools, and a distributed “Always On” data and analytics platform, with a goal to prevent disease outbreaks from escalating into pandemics.

  • The Pathogen Programme is the first of several high-impact programmes that EIT Oxford is developing to accelerate innovation across four high-risk, high-reward, high-impact humane endeavours: health and medical science, food security and sustainable agriculture, climate change and clean energy, and government innovation in an era of artificial intelligence.

  • The Pathogen Programme recently launched EIT Pathogena, a bioinformatics tool capable of processing up to 100 mycobacteria samples per hour, delivering rapid, accurate insights on Mycobacterium tuberculosis and over 190 non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTMs) in alignment with the WHO catalogue.

  • EIT Oxford has signed a Framework Agreement with Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) to jointly advance diagnostic and monitoring technologies, strengthening efforts in pathogen detection, transmission analysis, and outbreak preparedness.

 

The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford today announces the launch of its pioneering inaugural initiative, to develop a global ‘Always-On’ pathogen monitoring ecosystem. The Pathogen Programme aims to inform the treatment of infectious diseases through state-of-the-art point-of-care diagnostics and data-driven precision medicine. By developing innovative diagnostic and monitoring tools, EIT Oxford’s Pathogen Programme seeks to reduce the 14 million lives lost each year to infectious diseases (1), lessen the economic burden of disease, and curb the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

 

The EIT Pathogen Programme will be led by CEO Dr Emma Stanton, MBA, who joins the institute from Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Following an extensive search, Dr Stanton’s appointment is a significant step toward building a global team dedicated to developing end-to-end solutions. Dr Stanton brings experience from leadership roles across industry, healthcare, and government. Under her guidance, this programme will work closely with external partners and draw from the interdisciplinary expertise available across EIT Oxford to reduce global deaths from infectious disease.

 

Supporting Dr Stanton in this effort is Principal Scientist Professor Gil McVean, a global leader in computational biology. Professor McVean will collaborate with leading infectious disease experts to oversee the development of clinical diagnostic tools to combat endemic and epidemic diseases and build a distributed data and analytics “Always On” platform to help address global infectious disease challenges.

 

Dr Louisa Ludbrook MBA joins the Pathogens Programme as Business Partnerships Lead, with responsibility for strategic engagement with commercial partners, including sequencing, diagnostic and commercialisation companies across the entire tech stack, from discovery to delivery.

 

Dr Emma Stanton, CEO of the Pathogen Programme, said “Our vision is to redefine how we identify, prevent, and respond to infectious diseases globally. This isn’t just about treating disease; it’s about making precision medicine a reality now, building resilience and creating a healthier future for all. I am excited to be building a business to deliver on these ambitious objectives.”

 

The Pathogen Programme is the first of several high-impact programmes that EIT Oxford is developing. These programmes aim to accelerate innovation across four high-risk, high-reward, high-impact humane endeavours: health and medical science, food security and sustainable agriculture, climate change and clean energy, and government innovation in an era of artificial intelligence. Each programme will be led by world-renowned experts and supported by cross-disciplinary expertise in artificial intelligence, policy, and synthetic biology to deliver a powerful, end-to-end approach to global challenges.

 

The Pathogen Programme is collaborating with EIT's cross-disciplinary AI team to develop the next generation of tools for detecting novel and emerging pathogens and optimising treatment protocols. By applying large-scale machine learning to pathogen detection and the dynamics of infection, EIT Oxford aims to advance predictive capabilities that could help avert future pandemics.

 

The EIT Pathogen Programme recently launched its first bioinformatics tool for the assembly, variant calling and analysis of mycobacteria genomic samples, known as EIT Pathogena. Capable of processing up to 100 samples per hour, EIT Pathogena delivers rapid, accurate insights on Mycobacterium tuberculosis and over 190 non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTMs) against the World Health Organization mycobacteria catalogue (2).

 

EIT Oxford has also recently signed a Framework Agreement with Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), committing the organisations to collaborate on developing advanced diagnostic and monitoring technologies. This partnership aims to enhance the identification and understanding of pathogen species, transmission dynamics, and outbreak detection, providing crucial insights for pandemic preparedness.

 

By developing world-leading programmes, with the ultimate goal of building sustainable businesses led by world leaders, EIT Oxford aims to overcome some of humanity's greatest challenges.

 

Professor Sir John Bell, EIT Oxford President commented:

“Rapid innovation is needed now to face society’s biggest challenges. At EIT Oxford we are building a team of experts with the shared goal of developing technologies that will have a global impact on human health and the health of our planet. Through ambitious programmes like the Pathogen Programme, we’re not only advancing diagnostic and precision medicine but are also working to safeguard future generations by reducing the threat of antimicrobial resistance and addressing the risk of pandemics.”

  

About EIT Oxford

The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford’s purpose is to have a global impact by fundamentally reimagining the way science and technology translate into comprehensive end-to-end solutions and delivering these solutions in programmes and platforms that respond to humanity’s most challenging problems. EIT Oxford will ensure scientific discoveries and pioneering science are turned into products for the benefit of society that can have high-impact worldwide and, over time, be commercialised to ensure long-term sustainability.

 

Guided by world leaders, scientists and entrepreneurs, EIT seeks to accelerate innovation across four high-risk, high-reward, high-impact humane endeavours: health and medical science, food security and sustainable agriculture, climate change and clean energy, and government innovation in an era of artificial intelligence.

 

Health and medical science: To improve human health and reduce health inequalities, we need to shift our global mindset from treatment to prevention. EIT Oxford is developing healthcare excellence in preventative medicine by combining rigorous research with cutting-edge technology. Our programmes provide radical changes to the way healthcare is conceived and delivered across multiple domains, such as pathogen diagnostics and surveillance, prevention and modulating the immune response for health benefit.

 

Food security and sustainable agriculture: Improving yields and resilience of human food production is crucial in a world where climate change and expanding populations are putting food supplies at risk. Our programmes focus on increasing the yield and characteristics of agricultural products using both indoor and outdoor methodology and gene editing while also using plants to effectively deliver carbon fixation and natural nitrogen to the soil and to increase reliability of global food supply.

 

Climate change and clean energy: Using the application of technological solutions, our programmes identify and develop comprehensive solutions to altering the sources and storage of energy that shift away from carbon generating methods and consider how best effective storage systems can be developed. We see a role for fusion and fission in creating a viable carbon market and enhancing the role of plants in carbon capture as an innovative storage solution.

 

Government innovation in the era of AI: Technology in general and AI in particular has the capacity to transform the ways governments work across almost all relevant domains. As part of our programmes, we work with policy experts and technological experts to create the products and solutions governments need to meet the pace and scale of the technological revolution.

EIT Oxford will be housed at a new world-class interdisciplinary research and development campus that bridges The Oxford Science Park and Littlemore. Set for completion in 2027, the state-of-the-art facility will have 30,000m² of research laboratories, an oncology and preventative care clinic, plus educational and meeting spaces. The EIT Oxford Clinic, will have over 2,000m2 and feature on-site clinical imaging, will focus on cancer treatment, disease prevention and preventative care. The new facility will also further EIT Oxford’s current partnership with the University of Oxford and become the new home for the Ellison Scholars Programme.

For more information, please visit eit.org

 

 

(1) Global and regional sepsis and infectious syndrome mortality in 2019: a systematic analysis Gray, Authia et al. The Lancet Global Health, Volume 10, S2

(2) https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240082410