[6] As described in Andrew Rambaut et al. (2020),[4] a Pango lineage is described as a cluster of sequences that are associated with an epidemiological event, for instance an introduction of the virus into a distinct geographic area with evidence of onward spread.

Lineages are designed to capture the emerging edge of the pandemic and are at a fine-grain resolution suitable to genomic epidemiological surveillance and outbreak investigation.

[4][7][8] Distinct from the PANGOLIN tool, Pango lineages are regularly, manually curated based on the current globally circulating diversity.

The main developers of PANGOLIN are Áine O'Toole and Emily Scher; many others have contributed to various aspects of the tool, including Ben Jackson, J.T.

[5] The PANGOLIN web application was developed by the Centre for Genomic Pathogen Surveillance,[14] namely Anthony Underwood, Ben Taylor, Corin Yeats, Khali Abu-Dahab, and David Aanensen.