AGBL participated in the 9th Congress of the African Society of Human Genetics(AfSHG), which took take place in Senegal in the city of Dakar on the 15th – 17th May 2016 at the Radisson Blu Hotel.
The meeting takes place every two years in Africa and this year, Senegal was given the honor to host it. This year’s conference theme was ‘Strengthening human genetics research in Africa’. The choice of the theme was dictated by the need to bring Africa up to speed with the development of human genetics outside of the continent. Whilst we are in the era of “omics” (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metagenomics) and “personalized medicine” around the world, in Africa clinical genetics is still not firmly established. Despite the high prevalence of certain genetic diseases in African countries, medical genetics services remain scarce. Therefore it is necessary to promote the creation of such services within existing health infrastructures and develop human genetic research to ensure our continent is represented in the international scene. Consolidating and strengthening existing capacities, by improving current technical and human resources, would allow for a better and more efficient handling of genetic diseases that represent a non-negligible public health burden.
The main partner in the meeting was the H3Africa Consortium (Human Heredity and Health in Africa), an initiative that aims to facilitate a contemporary research approach to study genomics and environmental determinants of common diseases with the goal of improving the health of African populations. H3 Africa held its meeting jointly with AfSHG in Dakar.
