H3ABioNet, a sustainable pan-African bioinformatics network for human heredity and health in Africa
- Nicola J. Mulder1,36,
- Ezekiel Adebiyi2,
- Raouf Alami3,
- Alia Benkahla4,
- James Brandful5,
- Seydou Doumbia6,
- Dean Everett7,
- Faisal M. Fadlelmola8,
- Fatima Gaboun9,
- Simani Gaseitsiwe10,
- Hassan Ghazal11,
- Scott Hazelhurst12,
- Winston Hide13,
- Azeddine Ibrahimi14,
- Yasmina Jaufeerally Fakim15,
- C. Victor Jongeneel16,
- Fourie Joubert17,
- Samar Kassim18,
- Jonathan Kayondo19,
- Judit Kumuthini20,
- Sylvester Lyantagaye21,
- Julie Makani22,
- Ahmed Mansour Alzohairy23,
- Daniel Masiga24,
- Ahmed Moussa25,
- Oyekanmi Nash26,
- Odile Ouwe Missi Oukem-Boyer27,
- Ellis Owusu-Dabo28,
- Sumir Panji1,
- Hugh Patterton29,
- Fouzia Radouani30,
- Khalid Sadki31,
- Fouad Seghrouchni32,
- Özlem Tastan Bishop33,
- Nicki Tiffin34,
- Nzovu Ulenga35,
- The H3ABioNet Consortium37
- 1Computational Biology Group, Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa 7925;
- 2Covenant University Bioinformatics Research (CUBRe) and Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria, P.M.B. 1023;
- 3Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine, Rabat, Morocco 10100;
- 4Institute Pasteur of Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia 1002;
- 5Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Ghana, LG;
- 6University of Sciences, Techniques and Technology of Bamako, Bamako, Mali BPE 3206;
- 7Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, Blantyre, Malawi,3/Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, United Kingdom;
- 8Centre for Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Khartoum/Future University of Sudan, Khartoum, Sudan 11115;
- 9Institut National de Recherche Agronomique, Rabat, Morocco 10000;
- 10Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, Gaborone, Botswana;
- 11University Mohammed First, Oujda, Morocco 60000;
- 12Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 2193;
- 13Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA/Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, Department of Neuroscience, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2HQ, United Kingdom;
- 14Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie de Rabat, Université Mohammed V Souissi, Rabat, Morocco 10100;
- 15University of Mauritius, Reduit, Mauritius 80837;
- 16National Center for Supercomputing Applications and Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA;
- 17Department of Biochemistry, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa 0083;
- 18Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt 11566;
- 19Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, Uganda 31301;
- 20Centre for Proteomic and Genomic Research, Cape Town, South Africa 7925;
- 21University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 73;
- 22Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania 00255;
- 23Genetics Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Sharkia, Egypt 44519;
- 24International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology, Nairobi, Kenya 00100;
- 25Abdelmalek Essaadi University, ENSA, Tangier, Morocco 90000;
- 26National Biotechnology Development Agency, Abuja, Nigeria 10099;
- 27Centre de Recherche Medicale et Sanitaire, Niamey, Niger, BP 10887;
- 28Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine/Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, PMB;
- 29University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa 9300;
- 30Institut Pasteur du Maroc, Casablanca, Maroc, Morocco 20360;
- 31Faculty of Sciences of Rabat, University Mohammed V of Rabat, Rabat, Morocco 10000;
- 32Institut National d'Hygiène, Rabat, Morocco 10090;
- 33Research Unit in Bioinformatics, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa 6140;
- 34South African National Bioinformatics Institute/Medical Research Council of South Africa Bioinformatics Unit, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa 7530;
- 35Management and Development for Health, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 61
- Corresponding author: nicola.mulder{at}uct.ac.za
Abstract
The application of genomics technologies to medicine and biomedical research is increasing in popularity, made possible by new high-throughput genotyping and sequencing technologies and improved data analysis capabilities. Some of the greatest genetic diversity among humans, animals, plants, and microbiota occurs in Africa, yet genomic research outputs from the continent are limited. The Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) initiative was established to drive the development of genomic research for human health in Africa, and through recognition of the critical role of bioinformatics in this process, spurred the establishment of H3ABioNet, a pan-African bioinformatics network for H3Africa. The limitations in bioinformatics capacity on the continent have been a major contributory factor to the lack of notable outputs in high-throughput biology research. Although pockets of high-quality bioinformatics teams have existed previously, the majority of research institutions lack experienced faculty who can train and supervise bioinformatics students. H3ABioNet aims to address this dire need, specifically in the area of human genetics and genomics, but knock-on effects are ensuring this extends to other areas of bioinformatics. Here, we describe the emergence of genomics research and the development of bioinformatics in Africa through H3ABioNet.
Footnotes
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↵36 After the first author, the remaining authors are listed in alphabetical order.
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↵37 A complete list of consortium authors appears at the end of this paper.
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Article published online before print. Article and publication date are at http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.196295.115.
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Freely available online through the Genome Research Open Access option.
- Received June 26, 2015.
- Accepted November 25, 2015.
This article, published in Genome Research, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
