Centre de Biotechnology de Sfax (CBS):
Bioinformatics activity started at CBS in 2001 with the setting­up of a research and service unit of  bioinformatics. This unit currently includes one senior researcher, one engineer and four Phd  students. Activities include sequence annotation (service) and three research programs: ab initio  prediction of short eukaryote genes, statistical modelling by Bayesian networks approach of signal  transduction pathways and statistical analysis of human sequence variation data (haplotype  reconstruction and linkage disequilibrium). Activities of the Bioinformatics unit could be found at  the website: http://www.cbs.rnrt.tn/ and the research activity report is available under request to  Bioinformatics@cbs.rnrt.tn. Although the computing facilities are good, there is still a need for  trained human resources to strengthen bioinformatics capacities at CBS, particularly in structural  bioinformatics.

Web site and links: http://www.cbs.rnrt.tn

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

Read more: https://edu.t-bio.info/amity-university-summer-bioinformatics-program-registrations-are-open/

More at sandbox.bio

Address of the bookmark: http://sandbox.bio

The tutorial is divided in three main parts:

• In the Sequence part, you will see how to look efficiently for a particular protein sequence, how to blast it against the database of your choice to find homologues, how to perform a multiple alignment of the homologues you've selected and how to edit this alignment.
• The Structure part is about molecular visualization, homology modeling and structural domain prediction.
• In the Function part, you will be introduced to you 3 useful servers to investigate the function of a protein. i.e. finding interactors, co-expressed genes, see a phylogenetic profile, easily access papers citing your gene etc ...

During all the three parts, we will use the S. cerevisiae VPS36 protein as an example.

Address of the bookmark: http://www.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/rlw/text/bioinfo_tuto/introduction.html

Research Interest and Activities: 1. Plant Genetic Transformations
2. Molecular Population Genetics 3. Detection of human and Animals diseases 4. Breast Cancer­specific protein marker 5. Phytochemical 6. Genomic map 7. Bioremediation 8. Tissue Culture.

Web site and links: www.geocity.cbge.com

Xiaole Shirley Liu (lead instructor)
Joshua Starmer
Martin Hemberg
Ting Wang
Feng Yue

Ming Tang
Yang Liu
Jack Kang
Scarlett Ge
Jiazhen Rong
Phillip Nicol
Maartin De Vries

We thank many colleagues in the community, who helped Dr. Liu in prepare the STAT115/215 BIO/BST282 course over the years. 

Address of the bookmark: https://liulab-dfci.github.io/bioinfo-combio/

Under   a   NEPAD   initiative,   the   Biosciences   Eastern   and   Central   Africa   (BECA)  (www.biosciencesafrica.org) was established at ILRI. BECA consists of a hub, regional nodes, and  other affiliated laboratories and partner institutes. A state of the art joint Bioinformatics Platform  (www.becabioinfo.org), whose overall goal is to provide a coherent and powerful bioinformatics  infrastructure for use by all scientists in East and central Africa. The Platform goal requires both  physical and intellectual developments that together provide researchers with access to diverse  infrastructure in a wide­area network, thereby addressing four important aspects of bioinformatics: 

1) Science: bioinformatics tools for data integration and visualization, standardization of data  formats and data analysis strategies, and distribution of analysis tasks over local­ and widearea networks are in development; 

2)  Bioinformatics Support Facility: provides assistance and custom programming to projects  and those unable to establish a bioinformatics support function intrinsic to their project due  to shortage of qualified personnel or lack of funding; 

3) Hardware Platform: provide a powerful high performance computing platform capable of  handling the largest analysis needs for projects; 

4) Bioinformatics Training for East and central African scientists: While many Web­based  tools are available to the wet­lab researcher, the Web is not well suited for tasks beyond  single­sequence annotation. Researchers need to become productive in a server­based Unix  environment with its wealth of scripting and automation tools. Even at an entry­level, this  can be an intimidating task if proper guidance is not available.

International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE): ICIPE’s research focus is on insect biology, in order to improve the wellbeing of the peoples of the  tropics through insect science. There is a commitment to utilise contemporary science in order to  limit the impact of disease vectors, and agricultural pests. The understanding of the mechanisms  associated with behaviour (e.g. attraction and repellency) is crucial. ICIPE seeks to enhance its  bioinformatics capacity in order to support data from various EST projects designed to gain insights  into the insect ecology and plant pathogen interactions though studies of metabolic pathways  associated with production of all elochemicals. 

Long­term training activities:

Kenyatta University: An introductory course in Bioinformatics is offers to MSc Biotechnology  students. This comprises of 35 hours of lectures and practicals.

University of Nairobi: A centre for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics (CEBIB), which will offer  postgraduate training (diplomas, MSc and PhD) in areas of biotechnology and bioinformatics has  recently been launched. Other universities in Kenya, including Egerton, Maseno and the Jomo Kenyatta University of  Agriculture and Technology offer introductory courses to undergraduates in biomedical sciences. In addition, under the BECA platform MSc and PhD fellowships are being made available for  Bioinformatics students. ILRI is forging links with Universities in South Africa and the United  Kingdom to provide access to courses and training material. 

Research Interest and Activities:

The following are the present areas of research interest: 1. EST clustering 2. Genome sequencing and annotation 3. Functional genomics and proteomics (including key tropical pathogens) 4. Structural bioinformatics 5. Development of Bioinformatics Data Management Systems 6. Gene Mining 7. High Throughput Genotyping 8. Microarray data management and analysis 9. Metagenomics 10. Immunoinformatics 11. Host­pathogen interaction 12. High performance computing and grid development 13. Parasite transfection technologies 14. Cell cycle regulation 15. Population genetics 16. Vector genomics 17. Drug, vaccine and diagnostic target discovery

More at Web site and links:

http://www.ilri.cgiar.org/

http://www.icipe.org/    

http://www.uonbi.ac.ke/cebib

More at https://leidosbiomed.csod.com/ats/careersite/jobdetails.aspx?site=4&c=leidosbiomed&id=2040