From L-R: Prof. Gordon Awandare, Prof. Ernest Aryeetey and Prof. Felix Asante pose beside the Nexseq2000 Sequencer.
The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP), College of Basic and Applied Sciences, has unveiled a state-of-the-art next generation sequencing equipment at a short ceremony organised on the sidelines of the just-ended 2021 WACCBIP Research Conference. The Illumina NextSeq2000 sequencer was procured through a grant from the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA).
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) is a massively parallel sequencing technology that offers ultra-high throughput, scalability and speed. NGS has revolutionised the biological sciences, allowing labs to perform a wide variety of applications and study biological systems. According to the NGS Manager at WACCBIP, Ms. Joyce Nwongeli Ngoi, the Nextseq2000 sequencing machine is a very important addition to WACCBIP as it is a highly versatile equipment compared to existing platforms.
She indicated that “It has a high capacity that will allow us to scale up the SARs-CoV-2 sequencing and identify novel viruses and co-infecting pathogens. It gives us capacity to sequence segments of the human genome for diagnosis of genetic disorders that cause diseases.” Ms. Ngoi added that the machine is the only one of its kind in Ghana that can carry out Single-cell RNA sequencing, a technique that is used to analyse the sequence information from individual cells, providing a high-resolution view of cells. This helps to understand the function of individual cells with regard to diseases like COVID-19 and others.
WACCBIP has been at the forefront of genomic sequencing for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus responsible for the COVID-19 disease) and research that has provided critical information about circulating variants and the local evolution of the virus in Ghana. Sequencing is a technique that is used in the lab to determine the order of the four chemical bases (nucleotides) that make up the DNA molecule. Long stretches of the DNA molecule make up the genome which is the complete set of genetic information in a living organism.
In December 2020, the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) launched an initiative to support capacity building for vaccine development in Africa, and WACCBIP was selected as the Western Africa Hub for the initiative. With initial funding from the Open Society Foundation, ARUA has awarded WACCBIP a US$ 500,000 grant to build capacity for vaccine research and coordinate the activities of the Western Africa Hub. The grant application was facilitated by the University’s Office for Research, Innovation and Development (ORID).
Among the dignitaries present at the brief ceremony were Professor Felix Asante, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research Innovation and Development, Professor Gordon Awandare, Director of WACCBIP and Professor Ernest Aryeetey, former Vice-Chancellor and Secretary General of ARUA.
Ms. Ngoi explaining how the Nexseq2000 works.
