Participants after opening ceremony
The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) has held its fifth Annual Research Conference at the Centre’s Conference Hall under the theme, “Building Sustainable Research Capacity in Africa: Lessons from the Pandemic.”
Opening the Conference, the Presidential Adviser on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, acknowledged the significance of WACCBIP’s research in the fight against COVID-19 and expressed satisfaction with the high-quality research conducted at WACCBIP. Dr. Nsiah-Asare seized the opportunity to inform the participants of the formation of a committee by the President to ensure Ghana becomes a vaccine production country.
Prof. Felix Asante, Pro-Vice Chancellor (RID)
In his address, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research Innovation and Development (RID), Prof. Felix Asante, who also chaired the opening session, lauded WACCBIP’s key role in combatting the pandemic in Ghana. He added that, the Centre’s response in the fight against COVID-19 is a perfect demonstration of WACCBIP’s contribution towards attaining the University’s Strategic Plan of becoming a world-class research-intensive University.
The three-day Conference recorded keynote addresses presented through virtual platforms. Delivering her keynote address on the topic “Africa-led Science during a pandemic”, for the first day of the conference, Prof. Francisca Mutapi, Co-Director for Global Health Academy and Deputy Director of Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA) partnership, University of Edinburgh, explained that the TIBA partnership, has helped to capacitate real-time genomic sequencing and analysis. She indicated that TIBA, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), produces weekly situational reports on analyses of the epidemic in Africa. Additionally, TIBA generates reports on the capacity to test for COVID-19 in all WHO-member countries in Africa.
Prof. Julian Rayner, Director of Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, delivered the keynote lecture for the second day of the conference on the topic: “Leveraging experimental and natural genetic variations to understand host-parasite interactions and identify new malaria intervention targets”. In his lecture, he stated that decades of intensive research have drastically reduced the impact of malaria globally. He, therefore, emphasised a systematically approach to identifying more drugs and vaccines to continue the fight against malaria.
Prof. Christian Happi, Director of African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), Redeemers University, who delivered the keynote address on the third day addressed the topic: “Genomics characterization and surveillance of microbial threats in West Africa”. According to him, the identification and characterization of microbial threats such as infectious bacteria and viruses from human-to-human or animal-to-human transmission is crucial in public health in a globally connected world. He further explained that West African countries have been adversely affected, recording thousands of deaths from several infectious diseases ranging from Lassa, Ebola, Yellow fever, Dengue to the novel human coronavirus.
Other speakers included WACCBIP fellows and graduate students who presented cutting-edge research on topics in a diverse range of biomedical science fields while collaborators from reputable universities led plenary sessions and presented data on research into diseases such as COVID-19.
Professor Gordon Awandare, Director of WACCBIP
The Director of WACCBIP, Prof. Gordon Awandare, who moderated all the sessions paid glowing tribute to the funding institutions as well as all the participants.
The conference brought together local and international dignitaries drawn from academia and the policy environment including Dr. Ahmed Jinapor, Deputy Director General, Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), Professor Eric Danquah, Director, West African Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), Professor Gordon Awandare, Director, WACCBIP and Prof. Abraham Kwabena Anang, former Director, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR)
Also present at the Conference were Professor Tom Kariuki, Director of Programmes, African Academy of Sciences (the AAS); Emeritus Professor Samuel Sefa-Dedeh, President, Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) and Ms. Himdat Bayusuf, Task Team Leader, Africa Centers of Excellence in Higher Education (ACE) Project.
A cross section of in-person participants
