Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof. Ebenezer Oduro Owusu, visited the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) on May 14 to inspect construction progress on the Centre's new office complex.
As part of its activities under the TIBA Ghana project, the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) organised a public forum in collaboration with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of University of Cape Coast (UCC), and the Malaria Control Program (Ghana) to mark this year's World Malaria Day celebrations.
As part of its activities under the TIBA Ghana project, the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) organised a public forum in collaboration with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of University of Cape Coast (UCC), and the Malaria Control Program (Ghana) to mark this year's World Malaria Day celebrations.
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The panelists with members of faculty of University of Cape Coast[/caption]
The forum organised on April 24, featured a panel discussion with experts from the University of Cape Coast, the Malaria Control Program, the Regional Health Directorate, and WACCBIP. Experts discussed various pertinent issues connected to malaria in Ghana including malaria control and prevention, malaria vector behaviours and prevention, and the effectiveness of intervention tools. They also deliberated over potential solutions for some of the major challenges impeding the fight against the disease in the country.
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Prof. Francis Offei, Dean of the School of Medical Sciences.[/caption]
Prof. Francis Offei, Dean of the School of Medical Sciences, who was Chairman for the event, was excited about the depth of knowledge the discussions would draw out. He was encouraged by the panel's range of expertise, drawn locally, which, according to him, meant that the discussions would be relevant to the Ghanaian context.
The fight against malaria in Ghana took centre stage, with the discussions focused on how far Ghana has come and whether or not there was hope for elimination of the disease in the future.
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Dr. Akosua Gyasi, the Case Management Focal Person for the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), speaking.[/caption]
Dr. Akosua Gyasi, the Case Management Focal Person for the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), underlined the progress made in the fight against Malaria in Ghana. According to her, in 2017, there was a 9 percent decrease in the number of reported cases from the estimated 10 million estimated cases recorded in 2016. She stated that the mortality rate has also dropped in the same period.
“In 2016, we recorded 1,200 malaria deaths but in 2017, there were 500 deaths,” Dr. Gyasi said. “Ghana is at the control stage, where our priority is to reduce morbidity and mortality to the minimum.”
[caption id="attachment_4210" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Prof. Gordon Awandare, Director of WACCBIP, speaking.[/caption]
Prof. Gordon Awandare, Director of WACCBIP, also spoke about the progress made in Ghana over the last few years. He was, however, concerned by warning signs that suggest progress may be stalling.
“I am hopeful that we can reduce malaria to a nuisance,” Prof. Gordon Awandare said. “We have made lots of progress, and malaria has steadily come down for the past ten years. This is because of the effective drugs and efforts being made into vector control, but we have to consolidate the gains because recent data from the World Health Organisation shows a stall and tick up. This is a warning sign.”
Disease control was also a major talking point. Experts spoke on control measures to stop mosquitoes from spreading the disease.
[caption id="attachment_4217" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Dr. Asamoah Kusi, a member of WACCBIP faculty, speaking[/caption]
Dr. Asamoah Kusi, a member of WACCBIP faculty and a research fellow with the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, explained the responsibilities of individuals in vector control and the need to remain conscious of the malaria threat. He pointed out that mosquito biting behavior may have changed in recent years, making it necessary for individuals to be more cautious of the threats posed by mosquitoes.
“There is data that shows that the biting pattern of mosquitoes in places where people use nets are changing. Instead of biting when you are sleeping, the mosquitoes rather bite in the morning when you are sweeping,” Dr. Kusi said. “We need to constantly modify our behaviors to keep these intervention methods effective.”
Experts advised caution in the use of herbal medicines to treat malaria. According to one panelist, about 80% of people in Africa use herbal medicine as the first point of treatment, either wholly or in combination with other medicines. He pointed out that, although there are success stories with plants like Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, traditionally used in West Africa to treat malaria, there were several dubious merchants of herbal medicines, who could not be completely trusted.
Dr. Robert Peter Biney, a pharmacist at University of Cape of Coast, School of Medical Sciences, also expressed fears over how these medicines are handled by some of these pedlars.
“My fear with these herbal medicine preparations is that, sometimes the pedlars actually abuse the orthodox medicines by mixing them with herbal medicine when preparing them,” Dr. Biney said. “You might think the herbal medicines are working but what is working are the orthodox ones.”
The panelists took questions from the audience and corrected several myths surrounding the disease in Ghana. They invited government to invest more in Science research in order to help develop local solutions that would be tailor-made for the problems that are peculiar to this part of the world.
[caption id="attachment_4218" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Prof. Gordon Awandare engages the media.[/caption]
Prof. Gordon Awandare was appreciative of efforts of external donors contributing their quota to Science research in Africa. He explained that most of the funding from donor countries is sourced from their tax payers contributions to help build capacity to do research. He encouraged African governments to do the same.
“We have to fund research, I see a lot of young people here, next time politicians ask you to vote for them ask them what they are doing for health research,” Prof. Awandare said. “No country can develop without research. Currently, in this country, our budget is always zero for research, so we have to go round the world to look for money for research. Put a specific budget for research every year, and let's get some innovation going.”
[caption id="attachment_4212" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
The panelists with members of faculty of University of Cape Coast[/caption]The forum organised on April 24, featured a panel discussion with experts from the University of Cape Coast, the Malaria Control Program, the Regional Health Directorate, and WACCBIP. Experts discussed various pertinent issues connected to malaria in Ghana including malaria control and prevention, malaria vector behaviours and prevention, and the effectiveness of intervention tools. They also deliberated over potential solutions for some of the major challenges impeding the fight against the disease in the country.
[caption id="attachment_4213" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Prof. Francis Offei, Dean of the School of Medical Sciences.[/caption]Prof. Francis Offei, Dean of the School of Medical Sciences, who was Chairman for the event, was excited about the depth of knowledge the discussions would draw out. He was encouraged by the panel's range of expertise, drawn locally, which, according to him, meant that the discussions would be relevant to the Ghanaian context.
The fight against malaria in Ghana took centre stage, with the discussions focused on how far Ghana has come and whether or not there was hope for elimination of the disease in the future.
[caption id="attachment_4214" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Dr. Akosua Gyasi, the Case Management Focal Person for the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), speaking.[/caption]Dr. Akosua Gyasi, the Case Management Focal Person for the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), underlined the progress made in the fight against Malaria in Ghana. According to her, in 2017, there was a 9 percent decrease in the number of reported cases from the estimated 10 million estimated cases recorded in 2016. She stated that the mortality rate has also dropped in the same period.
“In 2016, we recorded 1,200 malaria deaths but in 2017, there were 500 deaths,” Dr. Gyasi said. “Ghana is at the control stage, where our priority is to reduce morbidity and mortality to the minimum.”
[caption id="attachment_4210" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Prof. Gordon Awandare, Director of WACCBIP, speaking.[/caption]Prof. Gordon Awandare, Director of WACCBIP, also spoke about the progress made in Ghana over the last few years. He was, however, concerned by warning signs that suggest progress may be stalling.
“I am hopeful that we can reduce malaria to a nuisance,” Prof. Gordon Awandare said. “We have made lots of progress, and malaria has steadily come down for the past ten years. This is because of the effective drugs and efforts being made into vector control, but we have to consolidate the gains because recent data from the World Health Organisation shows a stall and tick up. This is a warning sign.”
Disease control was also a major talking point. Experts spoke on control measures to stop mosquitoes from spreading the disease.
[caption id="attachment_4217" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Dr. Asamoah Kusi, a member of WACCBIP faculty, speaking[/caption]Dr. Asamoah Kusi, a member of WACCBIP faculty and a research fellow with the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, explained the responsibilities of individuals in vector control and the need to remain conscious of the malaria threat. He pointed out that mosquito biting behavior may have changed in recent years, making it necessary for individuals to be more cautious of the threats posed by mosquitoes.
“There is data that shows that the biting pattern of mosquitoes in places where people use nets are changing. Instead of biting when you are sleeping, the mosquitoes rather bite in the morning when you are sweeping,” Dr. Kusi said. “We need to constantly modify our behaviors to keep these intervention methods effective.”
Experts advised caution in the use of herbal medicines to treat malaria. According to one panelist, about 80% of people in Africa use herbal medicine as the first point of treatment, either wholly or in combination with other medicines. He pointed out that, although there are success stories with plants like Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, traditionally used in West Africa to treat malaria, there were several dubious merchants of herbal medicines, who could not be completely trusted.
Dr. Robert Peter Biney, a pharmacist at University of Cape of Coast, School of Medical Sciences, also expressed fears over how these medicines are handled by some of these pedlars.
“My fear with these herbal medicine preparations is that, sometimes the pedlars actually abuse the orthodox medicines by mixing them with herbal medicine when preparing them,” Dr. Biney said. “You might think the herbal medicines are working but what is working are the orthodox ones.”
The panelists took questions from the audience and corrected several myths surrounding the disease in Ghana. They invited government to invest more in Science research in order to help develop local solutions that would be tailor-made for the problems that are peculiar to this part of the world.
[caption id="attachment_4218" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
Prof. Gordon Awandare engages the media.[/caption]Prof. Gordon Awandare was appreciative of efforts of external donors contributing their quota to Science research in Africa. He explained that most of the funding from donor countries is sourced from their tax payers contributions to help build capacity to do research. He encouraged African governments to do the same.
“We have to fund research, I see a lot of young people here, next time politicians ask you to vote for them ask them what they are doing for health research,” Prof. Awandare said. “No country can develop without research. Currently, in this country, our budget is always zero for research, so we have to go round the world to look for money for research. Put a specific budget for research every year, and let's get some innovation going.”
We are happy to announce that registration for this year's WACCBIP Research Conference, which will be held from July 18-20, 2018, is open.
A delegation from the Centre of Experimental Medicine (CEM) at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has visited the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) as part of arrangements to establish a collaborative research partnership between the two Centres.
WACCBIP is pleased to announce that the Crick African Network is accepting applications for the African Career Accelerator Awards, which will provide Fellowship support for African Post-Doctoral researchers aiming to make the transition to becoming an independent researcher and launching their own research group.
The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) is organizing the third in the series of annual research conferences to provide a platform for graduate students of the Centre to present their research work to a wide audience.
This week's student spotlight is Cynthia Mmalebna Amisigo, a final year MPhil student with the West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP). Cynthia is driven by the passion to positively change the world with her research, which is to eradicate African animal trypanosomiasis (AAT), a parasitic disease that causes economic losses in livestock.
This week's Student Spotlight shines on Daniel Awudu Kwadwo Aquah, a final year MPhil student. For Daniel, being in the Cell Biology and Immunology Laboratory is an extra commitment that he considers not only a good preparation for his research career, but also a solid platform for learning how to communicate his research activities to the public.
As part of its activities under the Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA) partnership, the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) on Friday, February 23, 2018, visited the Ewim community in the Central Region of Ghana, to discuss malaria prevention, treatment, and control.
Growing up, Prince Berko Nyarko could have chosen a career in either sports or science; he chose science. Now an MPhil student with WACCBIP, Prince Berko is getting closer to his dream of eradicating malaria by working with other scientists at the Cell Biology, and Immunology Laboratory, under the mentorship of Professor Gordon Awandare, towards developing a vaccine for the disease.
Researchers from the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) have trained biomedical scientists from the National Catholic Health Centre (NCHS) at the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology of the University of Ghana.
The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) has hosted scientists from the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) and the TrypTag team from the Dunn School of Pathology of the University of Oxford for the third WACCBIP-ASCB-Oxford workshop, which was held from January 17, 2018 to January 26, 2018, at the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology (BCMB).
The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) is pleased to announce three open PhD fellowship positions for the 2018-2019 enrollment; two in Host-Pathogen Interactions (offered in partnership with the University of Copenhagen), and another in Human Genetics (offered in partnership with the University of Cape Town).
Dr. Akorli is a Postdoctoral Fellow (2016-2019) at the DELTAS Africa funded West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) and a Research Fellow at the Department of Parasitology, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR). She is also a fellow of the Cambridge-Africa Partnership for Research Excellence (CAPREx) (2017-2018). She holds a BSc degree in Zoology from the University of Ghana and, a PhD in Evolutionary Genetics from the University of Cambridge, UK. Dr. Akorli has broad interests in mosquito-borne disease and Neglected Tropical Disease research. She aims to contribute to understanding host-vector-parasite interactions by applying the in-depth information that can be obtained from using genomic tools. Her current projects under the WACCBIP and CAPREx Fellowships investigate interactions between environment, mosquito vectors, symbionts, human host and mosquito-borne parasites, to increase knowledge and advance efforts in new strategies for disease control in endemic settings. She is also currently a co-investigator on the NIH-NIAID-funded Tropical Medicine Research Centre grant award at NMIMR.
Dr. Kusi is an Immunologist and a part-time lecturer in Biochemistry at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP). He is also a Research Fellow with the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR). Dr. Kusi has postgraduate training in Biochemistry from the University of Ghana and graduated with a PhD in Medicine (Vaccine Immunology) from Leiden University Medical Centre, in The Netherlands, in 2012, based on work he did at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in Rijswijk, in The Netherlands. He undertook postdoctoral training between 2012 and 2014 at NMIMR on the development of sero-epidemiological models for predicting malaria transmission intensity in disease endemic areas. His research interests include identification of immunodominant T cell epitopes in Plasmodium antigens for vaccine design and the identification of antibody correlates of immunity against clinical malaria in children.
WACCBIP is proud to be associated with Drs. Akorli and Kusi.
The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) will, from Monday, 29th January to Friday, 2nd February 2018, host a training workshop for biomedical scientists from Catholic health centres in Ghana at the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology of the University of Ghana.
The Malaria Research Capacity Development (MARCAD) consortium is offering a fully funded three-year PhD fellowship at the University for Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ho. The position is open to nationals of any African country, who would normally be resident in West or Central Africa.
- WACCBIP-DELTAS GRADUATE INTERNSHIP PROGRAMME
- WACCBIP researchers train community health workers on Buruli ulcer identification
- CAREER OPPORTUNITY: POSTDOCTORAL SOCIAL SCIENTIST
- WACCBIP Holds Second Bioethics Workshop in Bamako, Mali
- WACCBIP completes three events under first ever TB/ medical outreach programme
- WACCBIP PARTICIPATES IN MAIDEN JOINT WORLD BANK ACE I & ACE II PROJECTS WORKSHOP
- WACCBIP 2nd Bioethics Workshop - Mali
- University of Ghana Host Prof. Peter Agre, 2003 Nobel Laureate for Chemistry
- Seventh African Centres of Excellence (ACE) project workshop - Lagos, Nigeria
- WACCBIP Hosts Sanger Institute's Advanced Course on Malaria Experimental Genetics
- WACCBIP Public Engagement Outreach Programme To KNUST
- Vice Chancellor Performs Groundbreaking Ceremony For The Construction Of The New WACCBIP Building (Biochemistry Annex)
- GBC Conference 2016 - Call for Abstracts
- Call for Abstracts ”“ WACCBIP Research Conference 2016
- 3rd Workshop on Molecular Biology, Pathogenesis, and Diagnostics of Neglected Diseases
- WACCBIP ”“ ASCB Holds Workshop on Modern Cell Biology
- WACCBIP UPCOMING EVENTS
- WACCBIP researchers train community health workers on Buruli ulcer identification
- CAREER OPPORTUNITY: POSTDOCTORAL SOCIAL SCIENTIST
- WACCBIP hosts first Crick African Network Research Methods Workshop
About WACCBIP
In response to the World Bank’s call for proposals for African Centres of Excellence, the University of Ghana proposed the establishment of the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) at Legon.
