New global collaboration uses UC Davis experts and AI to spot the next pandemic

UC Davis is taking a leading role in a groundbreaking international collaboration aimed at identifying viruses with the greatest potential to cause the next global pandemic.

The partnership will see researchers from UC Davis and UC Davis Health join forces with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and Boston University-based Biothreats Emergence, Analysis and Communication Network (BEACON project) to integrate BEACON's open-source disease surveillance program with UC Davis's Virus Intelligence & Strategic Threat Assessment (VISTA) project (formerly "SpillOver 2.0").

This collaboration will provide risk rankings in near real time using AI-assisted tools along with expert oversight and curation. The combined intelligence will help to identify the viruses at greatest risk of spillover from animals to humans and those most likely to cause disease and death.

"The integration of AI and global expert networks into platforms like VISTA and BEACON marks a transformative shift in how we anticipate and respond to emerging infectious threats," said Angel Desai, principal investigator and associate professor of infectious disease at UC Davis Health. "By identifying high-risk viruses and providing assessments of their pandemic risk potential, we're not just reacting to pandemics - we're working to prevent them."

Ranking viral risk for early pandemic warning

UC Davis researchers developed the SpillOver platform as an open database using data from over half a million animal samples collected from 28 countries and public records. This data was then used to rank the spillover potential (the risk of a virus jumping from animals to people) of nearly 900 wildlife viruses. It was expanded - with support from CEPI - using cutting-edge AI methods coupled with expert opinion to also rank the pandemic potential of viruses from domestic animals and other virus vectors.

Now rebranded as VISTA, the project will also leverage BEACON's advanced large language models and network of global experts to rapidly collect, analyze and disseminate information on emerging infectious diseases affecting humans, animals and the environment.

BEACON is the first open-access infectious diseases surveillance system that pulls in data from disease-tracking websites and systems before using AI to sift through the data, assign a potential threat level and produce a written report summarizing the key details verified by a human.

CEPI is providing up to $1 million to support the integration of data between BEACON and VISTA.

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• Virus Intelligence & Strategic Threat Assessment: New global collaboration uses experts and AI to spot the next pandemic