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Potential Host Institutions
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Potential Host InstitutionsLocation: Gaborone, Botswana URL: www.ub.bw Scientific disciplines: Analytical Chemistry, particularly in the areas of Environment and Health Description:
The host laboratory is at the University of Botswana, based in
the Chemistry Department. The University of Botswana has about
15,000 students, with Chemistry having about 20-30 postgraduate
students at any given time. These postgraduate students are
enrolled for in Masters and PhD programs in Analytical
Chemistry, Natural Products Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry or
Physical Chemistry. The Department of Chemistry has between
25-30 Faculty members with PhD qualifications. The Department
also has support technical staff who maintain and run
instruments such as the mass spectrometer, NMR and various
chromatographic and thermochemistry equipment. Analytical Chemistry has about 17 graduate students most of whom are privately funded. For the host research group, a small proportion of the research grant is from the University, however the majority of funds are from sources other than the University. To date, the research group has 5 PhD students, 3 postdoctoral fellows whose research stay ranges from 3- 6 months, and a visiting PhD student who will also stay for 3 months. The research group is headed by Dr. Nelson Torto (TORTON@mopipi.ub.bw). Laboratory Facilities: The
UB Department of Chemistry has some of the best facilities in
Africa. All the instrumentation is very modern, well maintained
and has service contracts. The Department has a 300 and 600 MHz
NMR, 2 Mass spectrometers (benchtop LC/MS and a single quad
LC/GC/MS type), several gas and liquid chromatographs, capillary
electrophoresis, super critical fluid extraction,
thermo-chemistry facilities with an MS detector, elemental
analyzer as well as a state of the art glass blowing workshop. Past Collaborations: Members of the department have collaborated with scientists from Europe and the United States. The research group has hosted a postdoctoral fellow from Duke University. Her work resulted in a publication. N. Wisniewski and N. Torto, Optimisation of microdialysis sampling recovery by varying inner cannula geometry, Analyst 127 (2002) 1129-1134 Dr. Torto also enjoys collaborations with Prof. Eino Lindner (Memphis University), Prof. James Holcombe (University of Texas at Austin), and Prof. Jorge Gardea-Torresdy ( University of Texas at El Paso). They all have published review papers in a special issue journal of the international union of pure and applied chemistry (IUPAC), in which Dr. Torto served as Special Issue Editor. Pure and Applied Chemistry 76 (2004) Dr. Torto studied in Sweden for his PhD, and enjoy collaborations and has published several papers with European colleagues. He also coordinates a research project between the University of Oslo and University of Botswana. There are many activities in this project which has 4 PhD students and has resulted in several publications. Affiliations: The University of Botswana is affiliated with the National Health Institute and Botswana College of Agriculture and Colleges of Education. Placement description:
Botswana provides unique opportunities in the areas of
environment and health. Botswana is home to the largest inland
delta in the world, the Okavango Delta. The Okavango Delta is
also a designated Ramsar site. Because it receives its waters
from Angola and Namibia, this shared water resource provides a
unique opportunity for studies that relate to sediment, biota
and the surrounding atmosphere. There is a need to establish
baseline data in many aspects for this pristine aquatic system.
Also the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Botswana provides
opportunities for research in this area. Desired applicants: The GSC fellow should be someone experienced in their own field, which will help the research group to expand. A postdoctoral fellow would be most useful. Dr. Torto has experience handling postdoctoral fellows from all over the world. The atmosphere at UB would give such fellows the opportunity to try new frontiers, and this would also impact on the graduate students in the research group. The fellow would serve as possible future contact and collaborator for the research group as well as the graduate students. return to top
Description: The University of Buea is an Anglo-Saxon institution founded in 1993 and is one of six state universities in Cameroon. Buea is a small town delimited on the northwest by the famous Mount Cameroon (4070 m above sea level) and is situated 25 km away from Limbe, a tourist, beach town on the western Atlantic coast. Buea is also about an hour drive from Douala, the economic capital and major sea/air port of Cameroon. The Biotechnology Unit of the Faculty of Science of the University was founded in 1994 by Professor Vincent Titanji. The objective of the Unit was to promote and undertake Molecular Bioscience activities at the University. So far, the Unit has been equipped with grants obtained mainly from the International Program in the Chemical Sciences (IPICS) an arm of the International Science Program (ISP), Uppsala University, Sweden; The United States Agency for International Development (USAID); The European Union; the Volkswagen Foundation and the International Atomic Agency. But currently, the major funds come from the ISP (IPICS CAM01 Project) which grants approximately 60,000 USD annually. The University also supports the unit occasionally with approximately 4,000 USD per annum. The Unit's research activities are tailored to match the available funds, though capacity is not being exhausted. Research activities commenced in the Unit in early 1996 in the areas of Molecular, Biochemical and Immuno-parasitology applicable to tropical diseases. Today, the scope is wider and on-going research projects include: vaccine development in onchocerciasis and malaria; molecular diagnosis and epidemiology of onchocerciasis, loaisis, typhoid fever, riketsia and tuberculosis; rational and systematic drug discovery in onchocerciasis, malaria, typhoid fever and tuberculosis. Tools currently employed include recombinant DNA technology; immunochemistry and hybridoma technology; cell, bacterial and parasite cultures; bioinformatics; as well as ethno-botanical and field surveys. The current staff and students of the Unit include: 1. Professor Vincent P.K. Titanji
(coordinator), Ph.D.; Chattered biologist; Fellow of the
Institute of Biology, London; and Fellow of the Cameroon Acad.
of Sciences and TWAS: The Academy of Sciences for the Developing
World. Expertise in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, Immunology,
Enzymology and medicinal plants . Email: vpktitanji@yahoo.co.uk Laboratory Facilities: The unit currently consists of one main and four affiliated research laboratories. One of the affiliated labs is attached to an animal house that is yet to be equipped. The main lab has a total floor space of about 100 square meters and is large enough to accommodate 8-10 researchers at the same time. The affiliated labs can accommodate a similar number. The unit has an animal facility where it currently breeds mice and rabbits. The current facility can hold 200 mice and 4 rabbits, but there is ample space for any substantial expansion. It has established field research stations for malaria and onchocerciasis. There is no conventional university teaching hospital but the unit is linked to three popular government or mission hospitals in the province where clinical samples can be collected. The unit has 5 computers in the laboratory, one of which is linked to the Internet. There are plans to have more computers in the unit which are permanently linked-up to the Internet. However, the University has a permanent and modern Internet cafe with over 60 computers all linked up to the web. At this café and even out of the University campus, an hour surfing costs approximately 50 cents USD. The laboratories are moderately
equipped and the current pieces of functional equipment include
the following (Quantity, Equipment, Brand or supplier,
Year of purchase): Past Collaborations: With scientists of Georgetown University, New England Biolabs, and the University of Texas Medical Center. The following papers were also published jointly. 1. Ndip LM, Bouyer DH, Travassos Da Rosa AP, Titanji VP, Tesh RB, Walker DH. Acute spotted fever rickettsiosis among febrile patients, Cameroon. Emerg Infect Dis. 2004 Mar;10(3):432-7. PMID: 15109409 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] 2. Quakyi IA, Leke RG,
Bigoga J, Bomba-Nkolo C, Titanji V, Walker-Abbey A, Hickey MA,
Johnson AH, Taylor DW, Ndountse L. et al. The epidemiology of
Plasmodium falciparum malaria in two Cameroonian villages:
Simbok and Etoa. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2000 Nov-Dec;63(5-6):222-30.
PMID: 11421368 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Affiliations: The unit is currently affiliated with laboratories in two of the other state universities in the country. These labs enable the unit to share expertise and enjoy comparative costs advantages. At the University of Dschang, extracts of medicinal plants are prepared, fractionated and pure products isolated. At the University of Yaounde I, the unit shares expertise in the field of gene technology with Associate Professor Dr. Wilfred Mbacham, a Harvard University graduate, and in the field of immunobiology with Dr. Rose Leke, an expert in malaria and pregnancy. As indicated above, the unit is also affiliated to some government and mission hospitals. The unit also collaborates with a number of universities abroad. Notable examples include the Universities of Uppsala Biomedical Center and University of Lund in Sweden, University of Berlin in Germany, Georgetown University in the USA, and the University of Nottingham in the UK. The unit shares expertise and materials with these laboratories. Placement Description: The GSC fellow would benefit from the expertise and facilities described above. S/he would benefit from access to unique resources like: tropical plants and animals, including the medicinal plants and other natural products (Cameroon has been aptly described as Africa in miniature because of its very rich flora and fauna); research on tropical diseases; availability of field expertise, patients and specimens. Desired Applicants: Fellows
at all levels (post docs through senior scientists) encouraged
to apply. One year placement.
Description: Med Biotech Laboratories is a biomedical research institution situated in Kampala, Uganda. It is a non-government institution legally registered in Uganda as a Non-governmental Organization (NGO). It collaborates with the Ministry of Health and affiliated hospitals and health centers and other national institutions such as Makerere University, Mbarara University, the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, and the National Agricultural Research Organization in research projects on malaria, tuberculosis, HIV-1/AIDS, cassava, and environmental biotechnology. Ongoing projects include soil and environmental biotechnology; antimalarial malaria drug resistance, malaria vaccine studies, and host response profiles and polymorphisms in different clinical forms of malaria; molecular markers for cassava cyanogenic glycoside content for cassava breeders; screening for novel type II restriction enzymes in soil bacteria; microbial diversity and community structures in the Nakivubo Channel; a new program on pediatric AIDS has started in collaboration with St. Francis Nsambya Hospital in Kampala. Current sources of funding are exclusively grants to the institution from the European Union, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Elisabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and the NIH. Current scientific staff: Laboratory Facilities: Laboratories and offices are housed in two adjacent double-storied buildings which provide a surface area of close to 500 sq meters. There is dedicated space for parasite and tissue culture, a hot room for work with radioactive isotopes, two dark rooms for auto-radiographic work, microscopy, pre-PCR preparation, a tuberculosis laboratory, gel electrophoresis room, water distillation and de-ionization, library, and a conference room. A sample of equipment and their respective ages is listed below. 3 Biometra Tri-block PCR
machines, 6 & 3 years The institute has eight computers, with a direct VSAT satellite 24-hour Internet and email access as well as access to several international journals via the Internet. Affiliations: The institute collaborates with the Ministry of Health, hospitals in Kampala (Mulago and Nsambya Hospitals) and upcountry (Apac Hospital). This collaboration provides access to clinical staff and expertise and clinical samples. Recently a Ministry of Health official used the institute’s facilities for his doctoral research. Med Biotech laboratories has also been involved in a project to assess drug resistance in the country for the Ministry of Health. Med Biotech also collaborates with Makerere University medical and veterinary faculties, mainly to share scientific equipment and expertise. Additional collaboration: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University of Glasgow, both in UK; Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, and Osaka University, Osaka, Japan. These collaborations provided opportunities for training graduate students (London and Glasgow), short term training for staff in parasite culture (University of Osaka) and malaria parasite transfection (Leiden University Medical Center), and research materials. Placement Description: A GSC fellow would be placed at the central lab in Kampala or, if they are clinically-disposed, in the hospitals in Apac or Kampala. The institute hopes that such a placement would entail capacity building and tech-transfer in various aspects of biomedical research or strengthen their clinical research capacity specifically in data analysis and epidemiology. This placement offers several things. First, access to field materials (patient and pathogen) relevant to malaria, tuberculosis, and AIDS research. Second, the lab and collaborative health centers will provide a unique opportunity to acquire hands-on experience in tropical medicine. Lastly, the opportunity to undertake cutting edge collaborative research that brings basic research and the field/clinic to interface on important problems of public health. Desired Applicants: One year would be ideal for sabbatical professors and it is sufficient for adequate technological transfer in specific fields. However, two years would be the ideal length of time for the fellow to be able to follow a field study backed by laboratory investigations to its logical and successful conclusion. The lab currently has an ABI 377 DNA sequencer as well as a flow cytometer which were donated. They do not have experience with this equipment; it would be useful to have someone with experience and expertise with these machines to train the laboratory staff. The lab would welcome fellows at all levels depending on the assignment or research program of mutual interest. Technicians, post-docs, and junior faculty would be most appropriate. However, university professors on sabbatical would also be welcome. Other: The lab usually has journal clubs on Fridays and would anticipate presentations from the fellow. In addition, the laboratory would gain from a fellow able to teach statistics, bioinformatics, and other subjects of mutual interest to the lab and the fellow. return to top
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