The SRA Bioinformatics and Open Lab Drug Discovery Conference and workshop, 3rd to 5th December, The Gambia
Written by Dr Bridget Bannerman, University of Cambridge
The SRA Bioinformatics and Open Lab Drug Discovery Conference was hosted from December 3rd to 5th, 2019 at the Medical Research Council, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in The Gambia. The conference which brought together biomedical researchers, health practitioners and digital education specialists from West Africa, the UK and Paris was organised in close collaboration with the Science Resources Africa (SRA) programme, an initiative founded by Dr Bridget Bannerman and supported by Prof Sir Tom Blundell. The objective of the conference, which was moderated by Mr. David Orr, Public Relations Officer of the SRA, was to explore how technology can mitigate the spread of infectious diseases with a particular focus on antimicrobial drug discovery.
The conference and workshop developed into a very active and successful event due to the activities of Dr Bridget Bannerman in visiting and gaining full collaboration of the researchers of the Medical Researchers at the Medical Research Council Unit, the British High Commission office and the World Health Organisation regional office in Banjul, The Gambia. The programme also attracted participation from the Centre of Interdisciplinary Research (CRI) in Paris, The European Bioinformatics Institute and the Wellcome Trust. Due to the huge interest and support from various partners, the programme was extended from one workshop session to a one day conference on ‘Drug discovery and Antimicrobial resistance’ and a two-day workshop with the following themed sessions: ‘Structural and Systems bioinformatics for drug discovery’, ‘Comparative Genomics’ and ‘Open Lab for drug discovery’. Fifty-five delegates from nine countries across West Africa attended, including Benin, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Senegal, and The Gambia. The delegates had a wide range of backgrounds, including medical doctors, computer science undergraduates, nurses, bioinformatics and biomedical researchers. All the participants applied through a competitive process and were funded by partial or complete scholarships. Demonstrating the draw of the event and the commitment of participants, one delegate travelled overland from Freetown to attend the conference, a journey that took him three days (we paid for his one-hour flight back!).
The first day of the conference centred on keynote presentations, including those from our keynote Speaker Prof Sir Tom Blundell, Professor Umberto Dalessandro, the Director of the MRCG Unit, Ms Sharon Wardle, the UK High Commissioner to The Gambia, Dr Sharmila Lareef-Jah, the World Health Organisation The Gambia’s lead for Disease Prevention, Professor Martin Antonio, The Director of the WHO collaborating centre for new vaccines surveillance at the MRCG Unit in The Gambia, and Dr Bridget Bannerman, SRA Founder and Cambridge University Researcher. The highlight of the conference was a captivating talk from Professor Blundell, whose involvement in the event has led to numerous immediate opportunities for the MRCG, including additional support from his funding networks in the UK and collaborations with the University of Cape Town. Following conference discussions on the perspectives of various health and policy professionals on AMR, Dr Bannerman set up a consortium of researchers working on antimicrobial resistance and drug discovery from various countries in Africa for future collaborations.
The subsequent two days of the conference consisted of a series of workshops for all delegates, led by researchers from the University of Cambridge, the European Bioinformatics Institute and the CRI, Paris. The main theme of the workshop on ‘Structural & Systems bioinformatics for drug discovery’, attracted majority of the participants and was led by Dr Pedro Torres, Dr Jake Wintermute (CRI, Paris) Dr Abdul Sessay (MRCG Unit the Gambia) and Dr Archibald Worwui (MRCG Unit, The Gambia). The Comparative genomics session was led by Dr Astrid Gall (EBI, UK) and supported by Dr Leo Tchientu (MRCG Unit). The workshops ran in parallel with individual computers for each of the participants. The Open Lab workshop, a walk-in series of practical demonstrations open to all the participants, was led by Dr Bridget Bannerman and Mr David Orr. For approximately half the delegates, this was the first time that they had engaged in-depth in these topics, with very little experience of computational approaches to genomics, proteomics and drug discovery. There was a constant interaction between the organisers and individual participants in getting them to use the software which they accessed through their computers and completed various specific tasks. Everyone seemed happy at the end and it was clear from the background experience reported at the beginning of the meeting that very few of them had very much contact with bioinformatics approaches before they came.
Coffee breaks, lunch sessions, and an all-delegate dinner also provided ample opportunities for participants to network with fellow researchers from across West Africa. A further benefit was the multilingual capabilities of the attendees; for example, Dr Pedro Torres, the Brazilian University of Cambridge researcher was able to conduct his structural bioinformatics workshop in Portuguese for Bissau Guinean delegates and Cameroonian participants spoke in French with those from Senegal, Benin, and Togo. The team of Dr Assan Jaye, our initial contact, at the MRCG Unit worked closely with Dr Bannerman to ensure logistical support through the duration of the programme.
More details about the workshop can be found here: http://scienceresourcesafrica.com/report-on-our-recent-conference-in-the-gambia/
The event was also filmed by The Gambia’s official broadcaster and aired on the evening news, with the three-minute clip available online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beX5gDvgmM8
We would like to thank the Cambridge-Africa ALBORADA Research Fund for providing the funds to cover travel and accommodation expenses for the Cambridge researchers and ensuring the success of the programme.
Photo from left to right: Mr David Orr (Science Resources Africa and Mott McDonald), Professor Martin Antonio (MRCG Unit), Dr Bridget Bannerman (Cambridge University & Science Resources Africa), Ms Sharon Wardle (British High Commissioner to The Gambia), Prof Umberto D'Alessandro (Director, MRCG Unit), Prof Sir Tom Blundell (Cambridge University and Science Resources Africa).