Written by One of the outputs of this project is to train AHRI’s wet lab and bioinformatics researchers and adopt the multiplex amplicon NGS protocol to AHRI’s lab. A total of four AHRI staff trained in Uganda, UK, and Netherlands on NGS and Bioinformatics at different times. Two AHRI staff traveled to the Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration (IDRC), Kampala, Uganda, from March 10, 2024 to April 06, 2024 and participated in a comprehensive curriculum that encompassed various components essential for hands-on wet lab activities, with a specific focus on library preparation for sequencing, thorough exploration of DNA extraction techniques and storing them using Micronics tubes, library preparation, quality assessment of libraries using quantity and purity checking equipment such as the bio-analyzer and qubit to ensure optimal sequencing outcomes and normalization and denaturation protocols for loading the loading libraries onto the sequencing platform.
Additionally, they are equipped with the data generated using an Illumina Basespace web-based platform, for conducting comprehensive checks on overall run quality. Moreover, the installation and execution of the bioinformatics Mad4hatter pipeline were integral to generating final sequencing results, empowering them to extract meaningful insights from raw data effectively.
As part of the wet lab capacity-building effort, one of AHRI’s lab staff sent to Prof. Susan Campio’s lab, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK, and Radboudumc, Netherlands, and participated in advanced hands-on sequencing training from April 28, 2024 to June 16, 2024. Additionally, one AHRI staff trained at Radboudumc, Netherlands for two weeks on ring-stage survival assay (RSA) to establish the experiments in our laboratory and field setups and train our staff members for skill and know-how transfer.