Page 133 - SAMRC AnnualReport 2025-26

P E R FOR M A NC E I N FOR M A T I ON

upskills postgraduate students from previously institutions. BRIP scientists currently supervise
under-resourced institutions. 2 cohorts from numerous MSc and PhD candidates, reflecting
Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University the Platform’s ongoing commitment to inclusive
and the University of Limpopo received hands- research capacity development and transformation
on training in modern molecular biology and within South Africa’s health research system.
genomics techniques, equipping 40 students with
critical biomedical research skills. AI in Medical and Health Research

BRIP’s Annual Research Conference has grown BRIP is actively integrating artificial intelligence (AI)
into a major three-day scientific event attended and data-driven technologies to enhance health
by more than 280 delegates. The conference research, innovation, and evidence-based decision
provides postgraduate students with an important making. The platform utilises machine learning
platform to present their research to a broader methods and data-intensive analytical pipelines
scientific audience. Bursaries are awarded to the across various research fields, including high-
top 10 students from previously under-resourced resolution imaging combined with computational
institutions located outside Cape Town. The image quantification, high-throughput sequencing,
conference also features leading national and and advanced bioinformatics and cheminformatics
international speakers and promotes collaboration, workflows.
networking, and knowledge exchange. BRIP also employs molecular profiling and

Complementing these initiatives, BRIP hosted a other omics-based approaches to generate
three-day cheminformatics workshop as part of large, complex datasets that support biomarker
the AfricaBP regional workshop series, focusing on discovery through machine learning models. In
computational drug discovery, as well as a two-day addition, the Platform is developing data-driven
introductory bioinformatics workshop providing environmental health monitoring systems to track
practical training in genomic data analysis. and analyse health-related exposures. Together,
these technologies enhance BRIP’s ability to
BRIP also maintains a strong postgraduate support extract meaningful insights from complex datasets,
environment. During the reporting period, PhD and accelerate therapeutic discovery, and support
MSc students graduated under BRIP supervision, improved evidence-based health interventions and
including students from previously under-resourced policy development.

BRIP’s Annual Research Conference has grown into a major three-day scientific event attended by more than
280 delegates.

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