The overarching goal of the Mount Sinai Pathogen Surveillance Program is to improve patient outcomes through the detection, tracking and prevention of pathogen-related infections throughout the patient population at the Mount Sinai Health System. The Mount Sinai Health System is the largest hospital network in New York City, spanning eight hospitals and 400 ambulatory clinics.
The MS-PSP is co-directed by Drs. van Bakel (Genetics and Genomic Sciences), Sordillo (Clinical and Medical Microbiology Laboratories), and Simon (Microbiology). Team members and groups included: Drs. Sordillo, Paniz-Mondolfi, Ramirez-Gonzalez, and Gitman (Medical Microbiology Laboratories), Simon (Microbiology), Sebra (Genomics Core Facility), Nirenberg, Mahmood, Gai, Masters, Xiang, Rabin, Bose, Green, and Kovatch (Scientific Computing and Data).
When NYC became an early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the MS-PSP precision surveillance infrastructure was instrumental in sequencing the first COVID-19 case in New York State. Our program sequenced the virus directly from the patient’s nasopharyngeal specimen, and we submitted the complete viral genome sequence to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID). We have assisted in investigating nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks, provided timely information on the efficacy of monoclonal antibody treatment options, as well as contributed to a better understanding of the immune responses mounted upon infection and vaccination.
Key enabling technology included the Minerva high-performance computational and data ecosystem, REDCap, the Mount Sinai Data Warehouse (MSDW), and other biomedical informatics and data science resources.
The importance of the MS-PSP team efforts during the pandemic have been acknowledged by Dr. Fauci. In recognition of the unique capabilities of the MS-PSP, MSHS was selected as the only US site within the Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network (GIHSN).
The accomplishments of the MS-PSP have been only achievable through the strong collaboration, communication, and engagement between team members across seven complementary disciplines within the ISMMS. We believe our team science approach will have a lasting impact on human health and pandemic preparedness.
ConduITS is supported by NCATS of the NIH’s CTSA Program. Any use of CTSA-supported resources requires citation of grant number UL1TR004419 awarded to ISMMS in the acknowledgment section of every publication resulting from this support. Adherence to the NIH Public Access Policy is also required.
