Education and Outreach Core

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To expand genomic diagnostic tools as well as enable viral sequencing, clinical, and host genomic research in West Africa, we need to build long-term capacity and scientific expertise at all participating sites for our interconnected research projects. A major component of our collaborative center will therefore be the transfer of genomics, bioinformatics and biostatistical knowledge to African scientists to promote and facilitate scientific projects in the region in collaboration with colleagues from the U.S. To accomplish this we have developed a series of educational workshops and graduate-level curricula to enhance African research capacity and foster cutting-edge genomics-based research and science careers, which complement our research efforts (Projects 1-3). The flagship educational enterprise of ACEGID is the annual summer genomics training program hosted by the Sabeti Lab at Harvard University and the Broad Institute. Our training program imparts specific skills related to utilizing genomics for the diagnosis of infectious disease and in-depth pathogen research in Africa. Previous work has placed us well positioned to expand our in-person training program to the H3Africa consortium as well as develop a robust, globally accessible, online training curriculum of practical genomics for diagnostics of infectious diseases. Towards this objective, we will enhance and expand our existing annual in-person genomics training for our collaborative center and H3Africa consortium students, enabling graduates to use these materials to conduct training courses in their home countries. During this project, we will also convert our training materials for wider distribution and online access by generating a massive open online course (MOOC) on practical training for genomics of infectious disease, and expand upon our existing outreach programme to disseminate research outcomes and new genomics information to the community. The Educational Core thus underpins our collaborative center’s overall aims, bridging vision and logistics to ensure the project’s success, and is the practical mechanism to transfer newly developed computational approaches, viral sequencing, and diagnostic technologies to African scientists.