EP 149: Sequencing 33 million samples to support the UK’s COVID-19 response with Tony Cox, CEO of UK Biocentre

The Genetics Podcast

0:00 Intro to The Genetics Podcast

01:00 Welcome to Tony

02:00 What Tony was expecting going into the role of CEO at UK Biocentre, and how the COVID-19 pandemic changed his plans

03:38 Receiving a phone call from the UK government in March 2020 asking the UK Biocentre to stop all of its projects and focus on sequencing COVID-19 samples

05:12 The UK Biocentre’s scale-up process, including how many samples the UK Biocentre sequenced over the course of the pandemic

09:30 The biggest changes that enable sequencing to scale from 1,000 to 100,000 samples per day

13:33 What Tony has learned about how best to implement an accelerated, unified effort to deliver for public health

16:17 The organization’s current focus on large-scale genomics projects such as Our Future Health

18:50 The challenges which need to be overcome to deliver the Our Future Health project

22:19 How UK Biocentre preserves it samples and the logistical challenges involved

24:04 The types of projects that involve the largest-scale levels of sampling and storage

28:12 Figuring out how to integrate a preventive, sample-based approach to healthcare within the parameters of cost and scale

29:27 The future proofing of sample storage techniques

31:33 The importance of consent structure and how to utilize long-term serial sampling

33:24 The upcoming technology or projects that most excite Tony

36:19 Closing remarks

Find out more

ukbiocentre.com

ourfuturehealth.org.uk