Report by Bernard K DADZIE
The Director of Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) Professor Dorothy Yeboah-Manu has disclosed that the institute has the capacity to sequence Two Thousand (2000) Genomes in a week due to Genomic Sequencing machines the Institute received from Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Professor Dorothy Yeboah-Manu, announced this when the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research received the Genomic Sequencing machines from Africa Centers for Disease Control (Africa CDC) on Wednesday, April 6, 2022, in Accra.
These equipment will enable the institute to detect variants, when new variants emerge. Only we are able to know that these are new variants by using this equipment. The machines will identify and detect variants that are circulating in the continent.
Receiving the equipment, Professor Dorothy Yeboah-Manu, expressed her profound gratitude to Africa Centers for Disease Control for their continue support to the Institute.
“We are very appreciative of what Africa CDC has done. During the pandemic, it was even difficult to get reagents and Africa CDC came to our aid. All the genomic sequencing that we did at Noguchi for the COVID viruses. I received funding from Africa CDC. They also supplied the reagents,” she said.
“The good news is that with the capacity that Africa CDC build at Noguchi, we are considered as one of the Africa CDC sequencing hubs and which is responsible for Ghana, Togo, Benin, Sierra Leone and Liberia,” she said.
In addition to that, Noguchi has been able to facilitate training of other countries. Last month through funding from World Health Organization (WHO), they were able to trace seven ECOWAS countries, plus Mauritius, and this is going to build capacity within the West Africa sub-continent instead of relying on other countries for genomic surveillance.
“This is very crucial, with the COVID everybody has understanding of variants. Mutations and variants of consent, and we cannot wait for the virus to take us on our way. So what is required of us that we have to continue to survey for the maintenance of environment. This machine is going to give us the opportunity such that now Noguchi has the capacity to sequence 2000 genomes in a week,” she said.
According to Professor Dorothy Yeboah-Manu, the Africa CDC hasn’t just donated this equipment. They are still working with them and collaborating with Noguchi and they are prepared to provide the needed funding and training support for them to continue their work.
“This is a continuous activity. It is not something that is just the intercept and this is really, really fantastic. This is also very crucial because now we have all been advised to take our vaccination seriously, which has not ended. We have to continue to study the emergence of new ones that maybe or may not be effective. We can’t just sit down. We need to do continuous monitoring. So this machines are going to allow us to do the work,” she said.
Presenting the equipment, Dr. Sofonias Tessema, Program Lead for Pathogen Genomics, Africa CDC explained that African CDC is a technical specialized organization of the African Union. It has been at the center of the COVID-19 response in Africa. He said that sequencing and genomics is an essential part of that response to identify and detect variants that are circulating in the continent.
The African CDC established a continental program to strengthen laboratories to support sequencing. So this support to Noguchi is part of the bigger program called the Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative.
To him, the vision is to strengthen laboratories to do sequencing locally. With that approach, the support for Noguchi is not only strengthening the capacity in Ghana, it enabled the Ghana Health Services to be able to identify variants, monitor the circulation of variants and understand how the virus is evolving in Ghana.
In addition to the response in Ghana, he said Noguchi has been at the center of supporting countries in the region, including Togo, Benin, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. So this support for Noguchi is not only for Ghana, it is for the region and in the bigger picture, it is for the continent.
“We hope that the addition of these equipment increases the overall capacity in the country, as well as the overall capacity in the region and reduce the time that it takes to generate this data so that the data becomes available for public health officials to decide to make evidence-based decisions very quickly,” he said.
Dr. Sofonias Tessema further said that the equipment is needed to look at the virus at a molecular level and see whether the vaccines and diagnostics are working or whether our responses are actually working.
“So this is an essential component of the overall pandemic response and this capacity also improves the research and development of new vaccines, new diagnostics for other pathogens,” he said.
He further said that the technology is the same whether it’s for COVID or any other pathogen.
“So with the availability of this technology locally, it actually enhances the overall research and development capacity,” he said.
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