January 15, 2025
In a recent comment published in The Lancet Microbe, Professor Linfa Wang, Director of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Programme at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, University of Melbourne’s Professor Sharon Lewin, Director of the Doherty Institute, and colleagues highlight the critical need for sustained investment, proactive planning and global collaboration to strengthen pandemic preparedness.
The authors emphasise the importance of integrating multidisciplinary efforts across academic research, public health systems and industry. They advocate for funding models that support large-scale initiatives to build expertise and establish research platforms capable of responding swiftly to emerging infectious threats.
To better anticipate and address outbreaks, the researchers call for the development of a more efficient and transparent reporting system powered by advancements in genomics and artificial intelligence. Such a system could detect early signals of new infectious diseases, assess risks in real-time and investigate unexplained outbreaks using tools like genome sequencing and metagenomics.
The authors also advocate for a fundamental shift in research priorities, urging for a move from reactive to proactive and pre-emptive approaches. Future efforts should focus on pathogen-agnostic diagnostics, broad-spectrum treatments and improved vaccine platforms, particularly focusing on mucosal immunity to block infection and transmission.
International collaboration remains a cornerstone of pandemic preparedness. Drawing lessons from the COVID-19 response, the authors argue that no single institution or nation possesses all the expertise needed to combat pandemics effectively. Partnerships that combine strengths across disciplines and borders are essential to fight ‘disease X’, a term given by scientists and WHO denoting an unknown pathogen with pandemic potential.
Exemplifying this collaborative approach, the Pandemic Research Alliance – established by the article’s authors – brings together leading institutions from Australia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the USA. The Alliance aims to advance pandemic preparedness by fostering innovation, strengthening partnerships and bridging research, education and public health at local and global scales.