A team of scientists join forces for the fight against deadly childhood disease

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Every year nearly half a million (443, 832) children under five are killed by diarrhoeal disease, making it the third leading cause of death in children globally (World Health Organisation). Among these illnesses, shigellosis—a severe diarrhoeal disease caused by Shigella bacteria— claims an estimated 63,000 young lives annually.

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Source: The Wellcome Collection

Shigella bacteria.

Currently, there is no vaccine for Shigella. This, coupled with increasing antibiotic resistance (where the bug becomes resistant to the drugs that we use for treatment), means there is a high death rate among children in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs).

To tackle this pressing issue, a global consortium of scientists supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (The Enterics for Global Health) has been tasked with better understanding the scale of Shigella infections and the role of antibiotic resistance in seven countries: Malawi, Bangladesh, Mali, The Gambia, Kenya, Peru, and Pakistan.

Birmingham-based sequencing company MicrobesNG, which was established as a spin-out from the University of Birmingham ten years ago by Nick Loman, where he is also Professor of Microbial Genomics, has been chosen to play a pivotal role in the project.

MicrobesNG will use advanced technology to sequence the DNA of the Shigella bacteria, enabling the international teams to decode this genetic information and better understand how to combat the disease.

Track transmission of Shigella strains

With this data, and with support from Professor Kate Baker at the University of Cambridge and Dr Jennifer Cornick at the University of Liverpool, the teams will identify genetic variants of Shigella strains from more than 1200 children and track its transmission. Ultimately the results will be crucial for developing Shigella vaccination plans, which could hugely reduce the incidence of the disease and impact the rates of antimicrobial resistance.

Professor Kate Baker, Chair in Applied Microbial Genomics University of Cambridge, United Kingdom Health Security Agency, Principal investigator on the molecular project said “Shigella have been a leading cause of diarrheal disease for over a century and now we are finally able to focus our research in the regions where the most disease occurs.

“This study will give us the information we need to find new ways to tackle this old disease.

“By working together across borders we can understand the genetic variants of Shigella that are causing disease, track transmission and help shape vaccination programs. Just like with COVID-19, understanding genetic changes over time is crucial for tracking spread of disease.

“MicrobesNG is an incredible partner for the group and has allowed us to work together across borders.”

Data will improve treatment outcomes

Dr Jennifer Cornick, University of Liverpool, co-Principal investigator and Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Research Programme site-lead said “As part of the work we will be working with scientists across the countries to empower them to analyse and interpret the data themselves, providing information to help shape healthcare delivery and policy.

“It’s important to remember that each of these strains comes from sick children and ultimately this data will improve the treatment outcomes on the ground.”

Fighting a deadly disease

Professor Nick Loman, founder and Chief Scientific Officer at MicrobesNG, a pioneer of genome sequencing, explained “Genome sequencing is a very exciting and rapidly evolving field. In this instance, we are extracting information from the genetic code to help fight a deadly disease.

“This project is a wonderful realisation of the hope I had in setting up MicrobesNG ten years ago; that any research team, anywhere in the world could access affordable, high-quality genomic sequencing for their work.

“This will give Professor Baker, Dr Cornick, and the team the vital information needed to reduce the burden of this horrible childhood disease.”

Important partnership

Dr. Patricia Pavlinac, University of Washington, Seattle, US, Coordinating Principle Investigator of EFGH added “The EFGH study represents an important partnership among researchers around the world working together towards a common goal of averting Shigella disease. Equipped with Shigella sequencing data from MicrobesNG and training in the analysis and interpretation this sub study is positioned to make a huge impact in our understanding of shigellosis worldwide.”