UK Microbial Forensics Consortium
The consortium aims to strengthen microbial forensics as a national capability, focusing on whether a biological agent is natural or nefarious in origin.
Who we are
The UK Microbial Forensics Consortium (UKMFC) forms part of the 2023 UK Biological Security Strategy, and is OneHealth in approach comprising frontline biosurvellience laboratories from the clinical, veterinary, plant, food and aquaculture sectors across all 4 nations of the UK.
A stocktake of UK laboratories identified genomics and bioinformatics - the generation of genetic information from samples and the use of computational tools - to interpret this information as a core UK strength; which will form an important component of the UKMFC.
Objectives
The UKMFC will harness expertise across all sectors and all UK nations and will:
- continue to develop microbial forensic analysis capability against a spectrum of threats (especially in the new era of synthetic biology)
- be able to attribute the misuse of biological hazards and act as a deterrent to hostile use
- collaborate widely with government laboratories, academia, industry, and our international allies and partners
- develop specialist microbial forensic skills and capacity across the UK to strengthen resilience and ensure capabilities are fit for the future
What we do
‘Microbial’ broadly covers all biological hazards:
- bacteria
- viruses
- fungi
- toxins
- parasites
- possibly insects
‘Forensics’ provides information on the biological hazard to aid the response and remediation phases of an incident. This could include:
- origin or provenance of the strain in question
- evidence of laboratory growth or genetic engineering
- presence of anti-microbial resistance (AMR)
UKMFC will support the investigation of incidents by quickly determining whether the release of biological agent has occurred as a result of a natural, accidental or nefarious event.
UKMFC Advisory Board
The role of the Advisory Board is to provide the governance to the UKMFC and is made up of 16 individuals. It has appropriate representation across different sectors (human, animal, plant health, food, defence and security) and nations in the UK, and reaches the appropriate standards of work required in the event of an investigation of a nefarious biological event.
UKMFC laboratory network
A laboratory network made up of frontline biosurvellience laboratories across all sectors and nations in the UK has been set up and represents a major milestone for the project.
Common microbial forensic and attribution working practises and procedures are also in development, which will be adopted by members of the laboratory network to aid the identification of a nefarious event (irrespective of the sector that has been affected, for instance). Collectively, the work in this area will create a critical mass of skills, experience and expertise in microbial forensics and attribution within the UK.
Bioinformatics Working Group
To harness the existing UK strength in genomics and bioinformatics, a UKMFC Bioinformatics Working Group has been set up to develop a suite of tools that will support front line surveillance laboratories. Comprising expertise from across government, the challenges this group seek to address include:
- engineered organisms with minimal ‘scars’ in a genome (for example, those with a small number of nucleotide changes)
- organisms with significant alterations to their genomes (for example, insertion or deletion of whole genes)
- synthetic organisms (for example, in the era of synthetic biology those that have been heavily modified)
Bioinformatics tools developed for wider use by UKMFC laboratories will augment existing analytical tools and support subject matter experts based in each sector to identify.
Further planned working groups
Various other working groups are in development in order to define the forensic, sampling and required quality standards that will be needed by the UKMFC in support of an investigation. Contact us if you would like to be involved.
UK skills base in microbial forensics and attribution
In addition to supporting the laboratory network, funding opportunities will be made available to facilitate academia, small-to-medium enterprises and industry to contribute to the aims and objectives of the UKMFC. These will be advertised through the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA).