workshops | July 31 - August 3, 2024

• NEW WORKSHOP, APPLY BY JULY 15th! Workshop IV: Microbial Sequencing Bioinformatics
• Workshops I (Clinical Research) and III (Molecular Bio) will be held from July 31-August 3, and participants must be able to attend the entire workshop.
• To accommodate workshop leader availability, Workshop II (Grant Writing) will be held asynchronously on July 31 and in person August 1-4.
• Workshop IV (Bioinformatics) will be held July 31-August 2.
• Travel scholarships covering transportation and hotel will be provided to selected trainees, early stage and senior African investigators.
• Please see each individual application below for more information on the workshop and applicant requirements.

Questions?  

Please email sierraleonescience@gmail.com

(Taught by Mohamed Barrie and Dan Kelly). 

Introduction to the process of clinical research, defined broadly as patient-oriented, translational, epidemiologic, comparative effectiveness, behavioral, outcomes, or health services research (e.g., any research that has individual humans or groups of humans as its unit of observation). Students are exposed to concepts and essential vocabulary for designing and interpreting clinical research. This is primarily accomplished by instructing students in creating a research protocol to address a relevant research question of their interest. Intellectual rights for West African scientists will also be covered. The objectives are for participants to: (1) Acquire an understanding of factors in designing and interpreting clinical research; (2) Outline a clinical research protocol, including background, sampling, measurements, and data analysis; and (3) Cultivate interest in continued learning, mentorship and other opportunities to further develop skills.

(Taught by Nevan Krogan and Jacqueline Fabius). This dynamic workshop will cover identifying grant opportunities, nuts and bolts of preparing to submit and obtaining needed certifications, along with scientific- and grant-writing instruction and science presentation skills. Dr. Krogan and Ms. Fabius taught this workshop in Kampala, Uganda at Makarere University in August 2019 and virtually in July 2021 and in Krakow, Poland at Jagiellonian University in November 2019. 

(Taught by Onikepe Folarin, Oludayo O. Ope-ewe and Julian S. O. Campbell). Participants will learn about a range of techniques used in the molecular biology lab, from cloning to cell biology. No previous experience in molecular biology will be required or expected. This will be a generally introductory course that will guide participants through the basics of molecular biology and the techniques of bacterial transformation, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and gel electrophoresis as well as making them aware of regional opportunities to continue to build their skills and knowledge.

(Facilitated by Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, Charles Olwal, Lacy Simons, and Arghavan Alisoltanidehkordi). This 3-day workshop will introduce participants to the concepts underlying bioinformatic analysis of microbial genome sequencing data. Through didactic lectures and hands-on exercises, participants will learn the basics of 1) setting up computational environments for bioinformatics, 2) understanding next-generation sequencing of microbial pathogens including viruses, bacteria, and fungi, 3) performing genome sequence assemblies and alignments from both short- and long-read sequencing data, 4) performing and interpreting phylogenetic analyses, and 5) using the R programming language for data visualization.  Basic familiarity with command line usage is preferred, but not required. Participants are encouraged to bring a laptop computer to perform the in-class exercises. 

Minimum computer requirements: 

Operating System: Windows 10 or 11, Mac, or Linux

Processor (at least 3 CPUs):

Preferred: 64-bt Intel or AMD x86 processor, at least 2 GHz recommended

Alternative: ARM M1, M3, or M3 "Silicon" processor (i.e. 2020 or newer Macs)

Memory: Minimum of 4 Gb (8 Gb or more preferred)

Hard disk space: Minimum of 40 Gb of free storage