NGS Academy – Africa CDC Pathogen Genomics Initiative

The Africa CDC PGI – NGS Academy applies over a decade of bioinformatics training experience from academia to public health, addressing challenges like the broad scope of required skills, diverse trainee backgrounds, and the need for foundational knowledge and follow-up support. Its mission centers on capacity development through training, building infrastructure to support these efforts, developing a standardized curriculum, and collaborating for global applicability. Initially, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Academy adopted a three-pronged approach to address immediate SARS-CoV-2 needs, upcoming surveillance for pathogens like malaria, and long-term curriculum and infrastructure development. A key initiative is the globally standardized training curriculum, which defines personal and pathogen-specific learning paths, offering modular content for personalized training. The Academy also provides a robust training infrastructure, including platforms for course materials and assessments, making resources freely available on Figshare, GitHub, and YouTube. Furthermore, a trainer database offers crucial follow-up support by connecting trainees with experienced trainers worldwide. Training is offered to diverse audiences, including wet lab personnel, bioinformaticians, systems administrators, and public health officials, through various formats like virtual, in-person, and train-the-trainer courses.

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