Page 127 - SAMRC Annual Report 2023-24

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Bioinformatics Capacity
Development Research Unit

Unit director:
Prof. Alan Christoffels

Prioritising responsive research Short-term impacts arising from these outputs
through impactful interventions include increasing open access to bioinformatics
tools and methods, improved use of pathogen
At the Bioinformatics Capacity Developments genotype data for surveillance and public health
Research Unit, our long-term goals are to contribute planning, and ongoing validation of new drug target
to improved health in Africa, increased African candidates. Frameworks and tools to aid benefit
Biotechnology Capacity, and mature ethical and sharing and support different modes of data sharing
governance frameworks for African health data. have also been published.
Our medium-term contributions include: (1) wider
deployment of bioinformatics solutions to public Equitable capacity development
health problems, including precision medicine, for empowering communities
biosafety, health informatics and pandemic
preparedness; (2) Promotion of industry-research Genomics Regional Training: As a continental
collaboration and entrepreneurship supporting pathogen genomics training hub, we have
growth of the digital economy; (3) Wider responded to the current cholera disease outbreak
engagement with One Health principles, with through a partnership with the Africa CDC to train
ongoing contributions to a larger drug resistance public health staff from 15 African countries on
and drug discovery knowledgebase; and (4) Wide data analysis of cholera disease outbreak genomic
uptake and use of appropriate ethics and data datasets. The workshops cover between 1-2 weeks
governance frameworks and tools. and provide participants with both theoretical
and hands-on experience. This programme has
At the Bioinformatics Capacity Developments provided a core skill to public health staff to analyse
Research Unit, we are contributing to the realisation their locally generated data to inform a public
of these goals through projects such as the health response.
development of a virtual genotyped cohort to study
drivers of multi-morbidity in WCGHW healthcare Benefit Sharing Framework was developed by the
clients; development of data standards, pipelines PHA4GE Ethics and Data Sharing working group
(Chair N Tiffin) to promote more equitable practices
and tools for pathogens to support pandemic for capacity development and benefit sharing in
preparedness, AMR and OneHealth solutions health research, particularly in LMICs. This framework
and to study virus evolution; development of data provides a tool to operationalise benefit sharing
governance and ethical tools and guidelines; and aims to make it easier for researchers without
development of databases for drug discovery targets. experience in benefit sharing to be able to design a
During the reporting period, these programmes benefit sharing plan for their research programmes.
have made many significant contributions as
indicated through the publications, presentations Equitable sharing of data and biospecimens in
and activities – including training and education Africa: This work is funded by B&MGF (Nicki Tiffin,
activities – outlined in this report. Calestous Juma Fellowship). The platform aims to

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