Covenant University (CU)Ota:
Covenant University (with her enriching and growing stateoftheart laboratories in the area of science and technology, arts, business and social sciences) is presently the Best University in Nigeria (Private University category), based on the recent overall rating just concluded by the Nigeria University Commission (NUC). Recently, Covenant University has initiated the establishment of a Centre for Applied Biotech, BioInformatics and Microbiology (CBBM) to be situated at the University. The institute has been designed to be a PublicPrivate Partnership for a productive synergy b/w Academia, Industry and Government. The whole concept is still evolving and more details will be release soon. As regards CBBM, a dedicated computing lab is in plan, but even our computing capacity is presently enormous. In the department of Computer and Information Sciences, we have more than 250 Pentium 4 PCs set aside for teaching and research purposes. Furthermore, we have several moderate speed PCs at the Postgraduate research lab and our engineering departments and units. Our wet lab facilities is presently minimal (basic for teaching), the Centre requirement as it touches the wetlaboratories is also set to upgrade this to basic tools expected at an international centre of learning.
University of Ibadan (UIB)Ibadan:
There has been significant increase in the number of bioinformatics activities in Nigeria (and West Africa) since 2003 when the program was initiated by the West African Biotechnology Workshops Series (WABWS, http://www.wabw.org) at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria (in collaboration with the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI, http:/www.sanbi.ac.za). Workshops that were open to scientists from all African countries have seen a very high number of applications from scientists based in West Africa. The encouraging desire to acquire cuttingedge skills to computational process data and extract useful knowledge from genome projects led to the interest of the West African Biotechnology Workshops (WABW) to develop an agenda to address the bioinformatics skills gap among scientists in West Africa. An increased commitment from agencies like NEPAD would be required in the provision of infrastructure to establish and sustain regional and national networks.
University of Ilorin (UIL)Ilorin:
The University of Ilorin was established in 1976 by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Bioinformatics activities started at the University in February 2003 with the establishment of the West African Bioinformatics Research Initiative (WABRI). However, progress has been rather slow due to inadequate funding. We are mainly engaged in Bioinformatics training at the introductory level and proteomics studies on various species of malaria parasites. Recently, we became interested in comparative genome analysis of various species of Plasmodium and the comparison of chloroquine sensitive and chloroquine resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum. Other activities and areas of interest can be seen on our website, http://www.wabri.org, although not all our proposed interests have been fully implemented due to our level of funding.
Training:
The University of Ilorin has introduced M.Sc. and Ph.D. programmes in Computer Science (with options in Bioinformatics). The programme is based in the Department of Computer Science and emphasis is on the development of algorithms to solve problems in bioinformatics. The Covenant University offers M.Sc. and Ph.D in Computer Science with option in Bioinformatics (Computational Biology). Furthermore, through affiliated departments, the CBBM is been design to award Diploma and Degree certificates in Biotechnology.
Web sites and links: http://www.covenantuniversity.com http://www.run.edu.ng http://www.uniben.edu http://www.wabri.org http://www.wabw.org http://www.unilorin.edu.ng http://www.wabri.org http://www.asopah.org
