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The CEPI centralized laboratory network for COVID-19 will help prepare for future outbreaks

Nature Medicine volume 29, pages 2684–2685 (2023)Cite this article

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In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) established a Centralized Laboratory Network (CLN) of ten laboratories in order to standardize immunological assays, provide testing support to vaccine developers, identify the immune correlates of protection for vaccines, and facilitate approval and dissemination of the most effective vaccine candidates. The establishment of the CLN also assisted in capacity-building initiatives and technology-transfer programs.

Partnerships with laboratories in different countries facilitated the transfer of knowledge, techniques and technologies for medical countermeasures against the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. These global laboratories were selected on the basis of their successful track record in testing clinical samples under high-quality systems, their willingness to collaborate and their ability to handle high volumes of samples from multiple geographical regions1. In 2021, the CLN included the following partners: the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research (Bangladesh), Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA; formerly the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control, UK), Q2 Solutions–Nexelis (Canada), Q2 Solutions (USA), Q2 Solutions (China), Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (India), UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England; UK), Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico), Viroclinics (Cerba Research; Netherlands) and Vismederi (Italy).

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Fig. 1: The CEPI CLN.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank A. Shurtleff and C. Clark for critically reviewing the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Washington, DC, USA

    Ali Azizi & Mark Manak

  2. Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Oslo, Norway

    Valentina Bernasconi

Authors
  1. Ali Azizi
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  2. Mark Manak
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  3. Valentina Bernasconi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ali Azizi.

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Competing interests

All work discussed herein was funded by CEPI under contractual agreements with the respective laboratories. The authors do not receive any royalties, licenses, stock options, or other financial benefit.

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Azizi, A., Manak, M. & Bernasconi, V. The CEPI centralized laboratory network for COVID-19 will help prepare for future outbreaks. Nat Med 29, 2684–2685 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02534-x

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