The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) has joined the Global Virus Network (GVN), a network of 45 Centres of Excellence and 7 Affiliates in 29 countries comprising foremost experts in every class of virus causing disease in humans.
The Network also welcomed two other Centres of Excellence, the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and the Colombia-Wisconsin One-Health Consortium (CWOHC), in an announcement made on Tuesday, November 13 by Dr. Robert Gallo, GVN Co-Founder & Scientific Director and Dr. Christian Bréchot, GVN President.
“We are very pleased to add these three valuable institutions to our growing international network,” said Dr. Gallo, who is also The Homer & Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor in Medicine and Director of the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, a GVN Centre of Excellence. “UNMC, among other things, will deepen our expertise in improved therapies against HIV and biosecurity while WACCBIP and CWOHC will extend GVN's reach in Africa and South America respectively.”
“Joining these new Centres to our network is an important step for GVN's development,” said Dr. Bréchot, who is also Professor at the University of South Florida and Executive Director of the Romark Company Institute for Medical Research. “Indeed, the GVN is reinforcing its expertise in biosecurity by merging Centres such as the UNMC to those working in the most basic aspects of research on human viruses, and reinforcing its presence in Africa and South America by integrating WACCBIP and CWOHC, thus allowing a strong global approach to the major threats posed by several human viruses.”
WACCBIP becomes the first Centre of Excellence in West Africa to join the network and seeks to take advantage of its global reach to foster collaboration among faculty and students at the Centre. The Centre's positioning as one of the leading Centres in the sub-region also makes it an important partner for leading research institutions across the globe.
“One unique thing about WACCBIP is our training and research prospects. Whereas many institutions tend to have one or the other, we have both, and that provides a strategic advantage for partnership in advancing the goals of the GVN,” said Dr. Osbourne Quaye, Head of the Virology Laboratory at WACCBIP and the GVN-WACCBIP Centre Director. “As the Network's only Centre of Excellence in West Africa, where outbreaks of viruses and other problems caused by viruses occur often, we also are uniquely placed to contribute to the vision of the GVN, which is concerned with control of viral disease across the world.”
According to Dr. Quaye, WACCBIP will seek to play an influential role within the Network in mitigating some of the problems associated with viral disease in the West African sub-region. The Centre's training and research agenda provide the basis for producing professionals who will be highly knowledgeable in areas of virology, as well as in conducting research into the pertinent viral infections that are prevalent in the sub-region.
Prof. Gordon Awandare, Director of WACCBIP, welcomed the partnership and invited collaboration among researchers at the Centre and those in the 45 Centres of Excellence and 7 affiliates that make up the GVN. He was confident that the partnership would contribute positively to achieving the Centre's goal of improving the diagnosis, prevention, and control of tropical diseases through cutting-edge research and training excellence.
“We look forward to serving as a resource to our colleagues in the GVN,” said Prof. Awandare, who is also the Unit Director of GVN-WACCBIP. “Further, we look to the GVN to support our training programmes that foster world-class research excellence with national, regional and international partnerships, thereby improving diagnosis, prevention, and control of diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.”
