Overview

In 2020, AusTrakka was rapidly developed in response to key reports to the Office of Health Protection and Response on the need to better facilitate public health genomics data sharing and analysis in Australia and New Zealand. AusTrakka serves as Australia’s national genomics surveillance platform for SARS-CoV-2 and coordinator of genomics outbreak investigations across jurisdictions.  

All state and territory public health laboratories upload genomic sequences and agreed epidemiological metadata to AusTrakka on a dedicated server for nationally aggregated genomics analysis and visualisation of sequences. Access is controlled on a user level, overseen by the Communicable Diseases Genomics Network (CDGN) and the Public Health Laboratory Network (PHLN), to ensure security of data being shared and that custodianship remains with the submitting laboratory. For public health surveillance, AusTrakka has the capacity to support bioinformatic analysis, genomic epidemiology and reporting of genomic findings within and between jurisdictions.

Operational Governance

The AusTrakka Governance is operated by the CDGN and is maintained by the AusTrakka Development Team at the University of Melbourne. Agreement on data governance for AusTrakka which covers the sharing of pathogen sequences/isolates and minimal metadata with pre-defined recipients, has been established between key partners within the Office of Health Protection and the CDGN public health laboratory members who will be the main contributors of genomic sequencing data. 

The overarching governance of AusTrakka is accessible here. This framework describes the AusTrakka governance for all bacterial and viral pathogens, with steering groups established for specific pathogens as required.

Currently, the AusTrakka Advisory Group comprises of representatives from leading genomics public health laboratories in QLD, VIC and NSW, who are responsible for overseeing the AusTrakka National Analysis Team, structure and workforce as well as the facilitation of analysis requests and reporting of AusTrakka outputs.

Governance Framework for national genomics surveillance in AusTrakka

The Framework for SARS-CoV-2 data sharing and analysis using AusTrakka was rapidly developed early in the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a mechanism for rapid data sharing and genomic analysis under various operational situations within and between jurisdictions and nationally.

This Framework formalised the endorsement from public health laboratories and public health units represented on key Australian Government committees, to rapidly share all SARS-CoV-2 genomics data to the AusTrakka platform through their nominated public health laboratory for national real-time surveillance. It also describes supporting mechanisms to request genomic data and analysis between jurisdictional public health laboratories in Australia and New Zealand.

This Framework was endorsed by AHPPC on Thursday, 1 October 2020.

The Governance Framework for National Genomic Surveillance in AusTrakka is currently under review and endorsement by CDNA, PHLN and AHPPC. This framework applies the same principles in data custodianship and describes the mechanisms for data sharing for national surveillance and outbreak investigation of pathogens identified as priority by national committees.

AusTrakka Governance Groups

AusTrakka Advisory Group

• Prof Benjamin Howden, MDU PHL (VIC)

• A/Prof Amy Jennison, FSS (QLD)

• Prof Vitali Sintchenko, ICPMR (NSW)

• A/Prof Torsten Seemann, AusTrakka and MDU PHL (VIC)

• Dr Lex Leong, SA Pathology (SA)

• Ms Amy Black, Australian Government (Cth)

• Dr Michel Watson, Australian Government (Cth)

• Ms Tuyet Hoang, AusTrakka (VIC)

• Dr Ceyhun Güngör, AusTrakka (VIC)

AusTrakka National Analysis Team

• Ms Mathilda Wilmot, Genomic Epidemiologist, AusTrakka (VIC)

• Dr Connie Lam, Genomic Epidemiologist, AusTrakka (NSW)

• Dr Caitlin Selway, Bioinformatician, SA Pathology (SA)

• Dr Son Nguyen, Bioinformatician, FSS (QLD)

• Dr Kristy Horan, Bioinformatician, MDU PHL(VIC)

• A/Prof Torsten Seemann, Lead Bioinformatician (VIC)

• Dr Ceyhun Güngör, Program Manager, AusTrakka (VIC)

AusTrakka Development Team

• A/Prof Torsten Seeman, Lead Bioinformatician (UOM)

• Dr Clare Sloggett, Lead DevOps (UOM)

• Sam Carswell, DevOps (UOM)

• Vi Phu, Software Engineer (UOM)

• Mann Sheth, Software Engineer (UOM)