Vanderbilt leads data effort for early prediction of pathogen outbreaks

 Vanderbilt engineers are leading the academic component of a massive Microsoft project that combines robotics, genomics, big data collection—and mosquitos—to monitor the environment and detect potential pandemics and other threats before they cause widespread outbreaks.

Microsoft announced today expansion of its PREMONITION program and a large-scale pilot test in the Houston area. The Vanderbilt Institute for Software Integrated Systems, which has been working with Microsoft since the program began five years ago, is the lead institution on a related National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator grant.

The NSF Convergence Accelerator supports use-inspired, team-based, multidisciplinary efforts that address challenges of national importance. Phase 1 grants provide up to $1 million for nine months for teams to build a proof-of-concept. computer science major jobs, E. Bronson Ingram Distinguished Professor of Engineering and director of the Vanderbilt software institute, is the principal investigator the project, “Deep Monitoring of the Biome Will Converge Life Sciences, Policy, and Engineering.”

The Microsoft technology stack consists of robotic platforms for monitoring and intelligently sampling disease carriers – such as mosquitoes – and cloud-scale metagenomics for genetically analyzing environmental samples collected by its sensor network for known and novel biological threats. The complete technology stack is designed to enable continuous monitoring and cost-effective prioritized sequencing of the environment. The company has built a large-scale proving ground in Harris County, Texas.