Pathoplexus Turns Two

By the Pathoplexus Team - 27 August 2026

Two years ago today, Pathoplexus was launched - with an idea about what pathogen genomic data sharing could look like if we put open access, speed, ease of use, and credit for the people generating the data at its center. Since then we, and our community, have built something exciting: a new choice for sharing viral genetic data.

Rethinking data sharing

Our founding idea was simple: pathogen sequence data should be shared quickly and openly, without friction and delays. No waiting for a paper to be accepted. No fear of being scooped, standing in the way of sharing when it could help the most. Sequences go up, provenance and credit stay attached to the teams who generated them, and anyone - anywhere - can use the data right away for public health insights and action.

Two years on, that model has been tested in exactly the way we hoped it would be useful: during real outbreaks. Teams in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda shared the first Ebola Bundibugyo genomes within days of outbreak confirmation. Labs across four countries submitted Andes virus genomes within days of the MV Hondius hantavirus outbreak being identified. Mpox and Dengue sequences that previously had not been shared at all, are now available to inform the work and response of others. Many of these sequences have been made fully Open when manuscripts are published, exemplifying that many people do want to share, and do want their data re-used - they just want to be assured of the credit that’s due for their role in generating the data.

Two years, in numbers and additions

Since we opened our doors:

• 18,659 sequences have been directly submitted to Pathoplexus, across 14 pathogens
• We’ve grown from our four founding organisms to fourteen - including outbreak-driven additions like Andes virus and Ebola Bundibugyo virus, alongside steady contributions of Dengue (3,557), Mpox (3,689), RSV-A and RSV-B (3,618 and 3,653), Measles (1,908), West Nile virus (993), HMPV (488), Ebola Zaire (72), and critical additions like Marburg virus (7), CCHF (2), Yellow Fever virus (2) and Ebola Sudan (1)
• These sequences have come from every populated continent: North America (4,737), Africa (4,194), South America (3,612), Europe (3,597), Oceania (2,157) and Asia (362)
• We’ve also added new capabilities to match: tracking SeqSet DOIs now lets contributors see when their sequences are included in scientific publications, hierarchical taxonomy search lets users find all sequences from a given host and its descendants in a single query, and link-out Tools let users jump straight from a set of sequences to analyzing and viewing them in tools like Nextclade, Sealion, UShER, and Taxonium.

None of this happened on its own. It’s thanks to our members, who guide us and hold us accountable. It’s because of our incredible Executive Board, ready at a moment’s notice to assess and approve the addition of a pathogen in an outbreak. And it’s thanks to our fantastic team of developers, who are continuously adding new features, improving user experience, keeping our ship sailing forward, and responding to our users and community. But most of all, it’s the result of researchers, labs, and public health institutes across the world choosing to share their data through Pathoplexus.

To everyone who has submitted a sequence, flagged a curation issue, joined our Scientific Advisory Board, presented a poster, helped with a workshop, funded our work, celebrated with us, or simply told a colleague about Pathoplexus - thank you. Two years in, we believe we’re showing that open, real-time data sharing makes viral research and outbreak response better, and we’re excited for what the next year brings.

Here’s to year three - and many more to come!