Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) training II on quantitative PCR (qPCR). Thermo-KRISP Lab, Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa, 21 June 2019. Training is open to post-graduate students and for technical staff of commercial and academic laboratories.

This month, we focused our newsletter on KRISP participation in the largest biotechnology innovation convention in the world, BIO2019. KRISP is part of the official South African delegation and is profiled as an inspiring organization for economic development in South Africa. In the newsletter, we also cover our high-throughput Sanger and Illumina sequencing services, growing bioinformatics team and KRISP & Thermo Fisher Scientific training program in Africa.

Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) training II on quantitative PCR (qPCR). Thermo-KRISP Lab, Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa, 20 June 2019. Training is open to post-graduate students and for technical staff of commercial and academic laboratories.

Scientists from UKZN's College of Health Sciences and KRISP have received a R12,8 million grant from the South African Medical Research Council and the UK Medical Research Council/Newton Fund for a UK-South Africa joint initiative on mental health.

KRISP is taking part of the BIO 2019 as part of the official South African Delegation. KRISP is also profiled as an inspiring and Bio-innovative organization for Economic and Social Development in South Africa in an official booklet of the South African government.

KRISP takes part of the South African delegation attending the Bio International Convention. In addition, the delegation will include senior representatives of the DST, SAMRC, TIA, CPGR and DIPLOMICS. Together, we will showcase South Africa in the BIO 2019 as one of the most sophisticated, diverse and dynamic emerging market that is open to investment.

This month, we focused our newsletter on Genomics, bioinformatics and artificial intelligence at KRISP. This month newsletter also highlights our travel to the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and a prestigious Royal Society Award to KRISP. We also cover our recent publication on TB and mental health in South Africa and four new training workshops organized with ThermoFisher Scientific.

UKZN African Health Flagship Grants Support Unit discuss about new funding opportunities: AAS and Royal Society FLAIR Fellowship & SAMRC-NIH Calls 2019. Wednesday, 24 April 2019 (1:00pm - 2:00pm), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

Radio interview by Dr. Astrid Treffry-Goatley about the use of story telling of our BMJ Medical Humanities 2019 paper entitled: Community engagement with HIV drug adherence in rural South Africa: a transdisciplinary approach.

The IndabaX is a means with which to experiment with the ways in which we strengthen African machine learning, artificial intelligence and its local communities. KRISP is a sponsor of the Deep Learning IndabaX 2019, 14 to 17 April, South Africa.

KRISP Team Leader Dr. Veron Ramsuran is one of 30 leading scientists to receive the prestigious AAS and UK Royal Society FLAIR Fellowship. The 2019 FLAIR funded scientists were selected from a competitive pool of more than 700 applicants. Their research is diverse, ranging from providing renewable energy solutions and addressing climate change, to tackling food security and targeting health and environmental problems that are most acute for people living in African countries.

KRISP has invested in two high-throughput qPCR equipment (QuantStudio 7 Flex Real Time PCR Systems. We have validated qPCR TaqMan Array Card for many common pathogens and pathogens including panels for Gastrointestinal Panel (38 pathogens), Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Panel (12 pathogens) and Respiratory Diagnostic Panel (34 pathogens).

KRISP has invested in a new Illumina DNA sequencer, providing access to NGS services using Miseq, NextSeq and HiSeq DNA sequencers. We are now in the position to generate NGS sequencing data at similar price, quality and speed as the international leading genomics centres.

KRISP has invested in two new Sanger DNA sequencers, including the ABI3730xl, which is the largest and most automated Sanger machine in the world. This equipment has 96 capillaries and it is able to produce over 1,500 sequences a day.

This month, we focused our newsletter on the new services and technologies available at KRISP. The newsletter also highlights our educational events (Talks, Wet-Lab and Dry-Lab workshops) and publications, including a paper on the increase of HIV-1 drug resistance in South Africa and another on the use of deep-sequence phylogenies to infer HIV-1 transmission networks

KRISP partner with Thermo Fisher Scientific on an educational program in Africa. As part of this program we organized 5 training workshops on STEM subjects in 2018 and 2019, ranging from PCR, qPCR, DNA sequencing and bioinformatics techniques.

UKZN African Health Flagship Talks by Lynn Woolfrey (DataFirst, University of Cape Town) - Opening up data for social well-being research in South Africa. Thursday, 11 April 2019 (11:00am - 12:00), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

UKZN African Health Flagship Workshop by Neville Naidoo (University of KwaZulu-Natal Legal Services) - Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), South Africa. Thursday, 4 April 2019 (9:00am - 12:30pm), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

This month, we focused our newsletter on KRISP partnership with the Department of Global Health at University of Washington in Seattle. We also focus on our new post-graduate training workshops. This month, we also have many publications on African Health, including on HIV and TB phylogenetic and drug resistance analysis.

UKZN African Health Flagship Postgraduate Training Program present the Research Ethics and Conflicts of Interest Workshop. Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa, 1 April 2019. Training is open to University Post-Graduate Students & Post-Doctoral Fellows.

UKZN African Health Flagship Talks by Prof. Michael Pepper (University of Pretoria & SAMRC Unit for Stem Cell Research & Therapy) - the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) Consensus Study on the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications of Genetics & Genomics in South Africa. Tuesday, 7 May 2019 (11:00am - 12:00), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

24th International Bioinformatics Workshop on Virus Evolution and Molecular Epidemiology (VEME), The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 4-9 August, 2019. The VEME workshop is recognised as one of the best international virus bioinformatics courses.

UKZN African Health Flagship, KRISP, DIPLOMICS & Thermo Education Program on DNA Sequencing Fragment Analysis Workshop . Thermo-KRISP Lab, Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa, 28-29 March 2019. Training is open to University Post-Graduate Students & Technical Staff of Commercial and Academic laboratories. Scholarships available to previously disadvantaged South African learners.

UKZN African Health Flagship, KRISP, DIPLOMICS & Thermo Education Program on Capillary Electrophoresis (i.e. Sanger Sequencing) . Thermo-KRISP Lab, Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa, 25-26 March 2019. Training is open to University Post-Graduate Students & Technical Staff of Commercial and Academic laboratories. Scholarships available to previously disadvantaged South African learners.

KRISP is presenting at the UCL/UKZN workshop on translational research, Health Innovation and Commercialisation. The workshop starts 19th March, Tuesday, at 12pm, finishes 20th March, Wednesday, at 2pm in Durban, South Africa.

UKZN African Health Flagship Talk by Dr. Maryam Fish - Cancer Genomics at KRISP will cover some of the genomics tests and bioinformatics pipelines for the analysis of whole exome sequencing (WES) and cancer panels from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Illumina and other sequencing methods. Friday, 15 March 2019 (8:30am - 9:30am), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

This is a password protected section of the website that provide access, to internal members, to previous grants applications submitted by KRISP.

KRISP challenges the status quo to create a scientific environment in (South) Africa that delivers the highest level of science, creates innovations and reverses the brain drain. This vision is starting to pay off, and we are happy to say that in just two years, we have been awarded over twenty grants to produce and analyze omics data in the African continent. Please contact us to discuss collaborative grants applications.

The Post-Award process is the step that we want to get to. However, it can be quite complicated for new PIs. Here we provide a summary of the process you should follow, along with contact information for the people who can provide immediate assistance as you proceed to grant application.

UKZN African Health Flagship Talks by Prof Tulio de Oliveira, Power of Diversity. Nature editorial covers a variety of studies that have tracked different types of diversity — ethnic, gender, nationality and scientific discipline — and suggest that particularly diverse groups publish a higher number of papers and receive more citations per paper than average. Thursday, 31 January 2019 (11:00am - 12:00), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!