The NIH FOGARTY Global Infectious Diseases (GID) program awarded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) – John E. Fogarty International Center supports the VPH-BIOTECH EASTERN AFRICA CONSORTIUM through a research training grant entitled “Molecular Epidemiology and Key Issues of Foodborne Pathogens in Eastern Africa”). The mission of this program is to train the future trainers (non-PhD holding faculty members [Track I) and laboratory support staff [Track II]) at the institutes using multi-disciplinary approaches with the ultimate goal of developing  a critical mass of scientists capable of effectively conducting research and training on foodborne pathogens towards prevention and control. 

This research training program is being conducted using two Tracks:

• Track 1 is a sandwich format pre-doctoral training for 4 PhD and 2 MSc.
• Track 2 is a short-term training that targets laboratory technologists within partner institutes in Eastern Africa (Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia; Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania and University of Nairobi, Kenya).

Track 1: Ongoing Activities

• Three PhD candidates from partner institutes in the VPH-Biotech Eastern Africa Consortium joined OSU as visiting research scholars  in March 2011 and the 4^th candidate in March 2012.

• The candidates originated from three academic institutes identified as primary

            capacity strengthening partners in eastern Africa:

• Aklilu Lema Institute of Pathobiology (ALIPB), Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
  • Tadesse Eguale Habtemariam (DVM, MS):   

• Zufan Sisay Worku (BSc, MS) 

• Department of Public Health, Pharmacology and   Toxicology (PHPT), University of Nairobi, Kenya
  • Benear Apollo Obanda (BSc, MS)  

• Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
  • Issac Pastory Kashoma (BVS, MS)   

 Track 2: Short-Term certification program: The program will receive a total of 12  laboratory technologists from partner institutes in Eastern Africa and will be trained for  60 days. The training consists of didactic modular courses (42 days) and practical laboratory training (18 days). The didactic training program will take place in Addis Ababa (ILRI-Addis) campus and the practical laboratory training part will be

at the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA)-International Livestock Research Institute in partnership with the Kenyan Medical Research Institute (KEMRI).

Cycle 1: May 21- July 20, 2012:

In the first cycle (2012-2013) solicitation, the program will receive six (6) laboratory technologists from the three eastern Africa partner Institutes (two candidates from each country).

 

Short-Term Certification awarded to Laboratory Technologists in Eastern Africa

A short-term certification program, as part of the NIH Fogarty research and training program on “Molecular epidemiology and other key issues in foodborne pathogens in Eastern Africa” was completed from May 21 to July 20, 2012. Seven laboratory technologist trainees [three from Addis Ababa University, two each from University of Nairobi, Kenya and Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania) were nominated by the respective institute directors.  The training consisted of didactic courses delivered at ILRI-Addis Ababa (May 21-June 29, 2012) and practical laboratory training (July 2-20, 2012) at kenya medical research Institute (KEMRI) and BecA-ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya.

Module I.  Foodborne Pathogen Zoonoses: Epidemiology and Control Systems: 40 hours (May 21-June 1, 2012):

Faculty members who participated in the delivery of this module included Drs J. Gunn (OSU-MC), D. Asrat (AAU, Ethiopia) S. Kirru  (KEMRI, Kenya) and  G. Tilahun (AAU, Ethiopia). This module is designed to provide the capacity to identify most common zoonotic foodborne diseases with respect to their etiology, epidemiology, as well as specific preventive and control measures.

Module II. Ethical Issues in Biomedical Research, Biosafety & Laboratory Data Management: 20 hours (June 4-8, 2012) :

This module was delivered by faculty members from OSU (Drs K. Hayes-Ozello  and B. Molla) and covered issues surrounding the ethical conduct of science, scientific authorship, protocols for research on human and animal subjects, scientific conduct issues in an ethical decision, principles of laboratory biosafety, and data management. 

Module III. Molecular Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases/Adjunct skills: 40hours (June 11-21, 2012):

Faculty members from OSU and eastern Africa who participated in the delivery of these courses included Drs W. Gebreyes (CVM-VPM) and   R. Kazwala (SUA, Tanzania). This module was two components: a). Molecular Epidemiology of infectious Diseases: provides concepts of molecular tools that can be applied to epidemiological studies of infectious diseases; the capacity to identify the advantages and limitations of each molecular technique and develop skills to critically analyze and interpret data collected with various molecular approaches. b). Adjunct skills:  the course addresses scientific communication, basics of scientific writing, communications and scientific presentations, report writing, grant writing and solicitation of funds, funding mechanisms and approaches for funding and scientific peer-review system for manuscript and grants.

Module IV. Biomedical Informatics: 20 hours (June 25-June 29, 2012):

This was a one week module and delivered by instructors from OSU-VPM/FAHRP (G. Rajashekara) and from JCVI (USA)  R. Pieper. This course is designed to introduce the various biomedical informatics approaches that are instrumental for analysis of genotypic data; retrieval of genetic databases and understanding molecular data manipulations for the purposes of addressing infectious disease investigations.

Laboratory Practical Training (July 2-July 20, 2012):

The practical laboratory training was offered at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) and BecA-ILRI, Nairobi, Kenya, from July 2-20, 2012. The training focused on phenotypic and genotypic characterization of foodborne pathogens and Faculty members who participated in the practical laboratory training included Drs P. Boyaka (CVM-BVS), A. Djikeng (BecA-ILRI, Nairobi), G. Rajashekara (CVM-VPM/FAHRP), S. Kariuki and S. Kirru (KEMRI, Kenya).