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19 July 2018 Photo Supplied
AEVGI advances Next-Generation Sequencing in Africa
Prof George Armah, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Ghana; Prof Carl Kirkwood, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USA; Cornelius Hagenmeier, Director: Internationalisation, UFS; Prof Gert van Zyl, Dean: Health Sciences; Dr Martin Nyaga, Senior Lecturer in the NGS Unit; Prof Joyce Tsoka-Gwegweni, Vice-Dean: Health Sciences; Dr Glen Taylor, Senior Director: Research and Development; Prof Jeffrey Mphahlele, Vice-President, South African Medical Research Council.

The inaugural edition of the University of the Free State (UFS) Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) Data and Bioinformatics Workshop, hosted by the UFS-NGS Unit in the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences, marked a new beginning for the advancement of NGS in Africa under the auspices of the African Enteric Viruses Genome Initiative (AEVGI), which was recently funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The AEVGI will generate rotavirus genomes at the UFS-NGS Unit to investigate the long-term effects of the introduction of the monovalent RV1 vaccine in three African countries – Ghana, Malawi, and South Africa.

The workshop attracted over 90 participants from 15 national and international institutions, with organisations from seven different countries as well as company representatives attending the event. The workshop kicked off with a courtesy call to the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, followed by a stakeholder meeting with the executive management of the UFS.

The funding was secured through an award to the principal investigator, Dr Martin Nyaga, and sub-awards to co-investigators, Dr Khuzwayo Jere, Dr Francis Dennis, and Dr Valentine Ndze. According to attendee evaluations of the workshop, the remarkable performance of the workshop instructors was outstanding. Through practical sessions, participants were equipped with knowledge on how to apply several tools of genetic data analysis, using the rotavirus genome as a model to construct and interpret different genomic datasets.

A total of 65 students attended the hands-on workshop, the majority of which were from South African higher-education institutions. The organisers are grateful to the sponsors, particularly to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the University of the Free State, for making the workshop a success. Whitehead Scientific and the South African Medical Research Council also played a major role in the success of the workshop. The local organising committee consisted of Dr Martin Nyaga (host, convener and chair), Dr Saheed Sabiu (secretary), and Mr Stephanus Riekert (principal ICT support).

News Archive

Department undergoes peer review
2006-10-19

The Language Practice division of the Department of Afro-asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice at the University of the Free State (UFS) conducted a peer review.  This is the first peer review based on the new procedures for quality assurance that were implemented in the Faculty of Humanities.  The peer review ended with a report from external assessors and the compilation of corrective plans.  One of the aims of the assessment is to determine the department’s national profile en to determine its international acceptability. 

Here are, from the left:   Prof Jackie Naudé (Departmental Chairperson: Afro-asiatic Studies, Sign Language and Language Practice), Dr Peet Venter (Senior lecturer in charge of quality control in the office of the Dean: Faculty of the Humanities), Dr Maeve Olohan (Lecturer in Translation, University of Manchester in the United Kingdom), Dr Anne-Marie Beukes (Chairperson of the South African Institute for Translators and lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Literature Science at the University of Johannesburg) and Prof Gerhardt de Klerk (Dean: Faculty of the Humanities).  

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