Nextstrain

Nextstrain is a collaboration between researchers in Seattle, United States^[1] and Basel, Switzerland^[2] which provides a collection of open-source tools for visualising the genetics behind the spread of viral outbreaks.^[3]

Nextstrain

Formation	2015; 10 years ago (2015)
Location	Seattle, United States Basel, Switzerland
Fields	Bioinformatics Viral phylodynamics Open-source software
Key people	Trevor Bedford Richard Neher Emma Hodcroft
Awards	Open Science Prize Webby Award
Website	https://nextstrain.org

Its aim is to support public health measures and surveillance by facilitating understanding of the spread and evolution of pathogens. The Nextstrain platform was begun in 2015.^[2] Code developed by Nextstrain is made publicly available, via, for example github.com and its data is available and viewable in accessible form via the pages at the website.^[4]

Applications

According to their website, the Nextstrain team maintains an up-to-date genomic analysis of each of the following pathogens:^[5]

• Avian influenza
• Dengue
• Enterovirus D68
• Measles
• Monkeypox virus
• Mumps
• SARS-CoV-2
• Seasonal influenza
• Tuberculosis
• West Nile virus
• West African Ebola 2013-16
• Zika

Covid-19 pandemic

Nextstrain and its results have been widely quoted during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[6][7][8][9]

Awards

In March 2017, Nextstrain won the inaugural Open Science Prize, an initiative of the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).^[10]

In May 2020, Nextstrain and Trevor Bedford (Associate professor, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center)^[11] received a Webby Special Achievement Award for the web tool.^[12]

See also

• INSDC
• GISAID
• PANGOLIN
• List of COVID-19 simulation models