The workshop provides both theoretical and practical training in phylogenetic inference and evolutionary hypothesis testing. It is recognized as one of the best international virus bioinformatics courses. It covers sequence analysis, phylogenetics, phylodynamics methods and large scale methods for next-generation sequencing (NGS) analytics

KRISP Talks by Dr Carren Ginsburg, SAMRC/Wits Rural Public Health & Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), 23 August 2017 (11am - midday), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

The concept behind this newsletter is that anyone with 15 minutes to spare can learn about KRISP work. In this July 2017 issue of our newsletter, we have included interesting news, videos, blogs, reports, tweets, publications and training events of KRISP

KRISP Researcher and Fulbright scholar Dr. Eduan Wilkinson news from the US: HiPerGator supercomputer is enabling infectious disease transmission research in UF's Emerging Pathogens Institute.

Friday, 7 July, 2017, Dr Marcel Tongo Passo, a SANTHE Post-doctoral trainee, has won a "Best Abstract" award at the DELTAS (Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science) Africa Annual Grantees Meeting 2017, held in Accra, Ghana, between 3 to 5 July. Passo is based at KRISP (KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform) and HPP (HIV Pathogenesis Programme) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

By Arthi Gopi, Independent on Saturday Newspaper - KRISP atrracts the brightest - Durban is leading the way in DNA research, having attracted some of the brightest minds in the science field, in a new state-of-the-art lab in the city.

The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and UKZN have signed an agreement for the establishment of KRISP - the KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform.

KRISP Talks by Professor Bonga Chiliza, Discipline of Psychiatry: College of Health Sciences, UKZN, 23 June 2017, K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

The concept behind this newsletter is that anyone with 15 minutes to spare can learn about our research work. In this Jan-Mar 2017 issue of our newsletter, we have included interesting open access publications, news, blogs, reports, tweets, and training information produced by our group.

The workshop is targeted at clinicians, clinical virologists and nurses working in the public sector who are currently involved in the treatment of patients with HIV and TB in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Patients coinfected with human T-cell lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1) and HIV continue to have elevated CD4+ T-cell counts, even though there is no difference in their HIV viral load levels after antiretroviral therapy when compared with patients who just have HIV (Curr HIV Res 2017).

News coverage and clinical management implication of our recent HIV/HTLV co-infection manuscript, Current HIV Research, 2017

Perspective by Carlos del Rio, MD Professor of medicine, division of infectious diseases, Emory University School of Medicine on our recent CID manuscript on high-level transmitted resistance epidemic in Aruba.

The prevalence of resistance to nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors among HIV-infected individuals has increased to 'alarming levels' in Aruba, reaching 45% in 2015, see our recent publication at CID.

KRISP Talks by Prof. Tulio de Oliveira, College of Health Sciences, UKZN & CAPRISA Research Associate, 17 March 2017, K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, South Africa

The Wellcome Trust DELTAS funded SANTHE program awarded seven grants to develop collaborative research projects to address critical challenges to African capacity in HIV and/or TB clinical, social/behavioural, and biomedical science.

The National Research Foundation and Swiss National Science Foundation through their Swiss-South Africa programme, have funded a project entitled: A context-based knowledge resource integrating HIV and Mtb molecular biology with host-pathogen and drug-resistance data. As part of the project, the University of Cape Town Computational Biology Division and our research group at UKZN are hosting a symposium on pathogen genomics.

KRISP Talks by Dr Veron Ramsuran, Senior Lecturer: College of Health Sciences, UKZN, 27 January 2017, K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, South Africa

The concept behind this newsletter is that anyone with 15 minutes to spare can learn about our research work. In this December 2016 issue of our newsletter, we have included interesting news, blogs, reports, tweets, publications and training information produced by our group.

This is a half-day interactive workshop, which seeks to explore and deliberate on key ethical issues associated with HIV phylogenetic analysis as applied in our understanding of HIV transmission dynamics, particularly in African settings. Keynote presentations will be followed by plenary discussions led by the speakers.

In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, John Gregson and colleagues report the results of a meta-analysis investigating HIV-1 drug resistance in 20 studies from sub-Saharan Africa.

Two of our recently published manuscripts (de Oliveira et al. Lancet HIV 2016 & Gregson et al Lancet Infectious Diseases 2016) are highlighed in the Lancet website front webpage...

By Professor Ayesha Kharsany, December 1, 2016, Durban - Globally, over 1.6 billion people are in the age group 12-24 years, the largest generation of adolescents and young people. However, almost 42% of new HIV infections occur in this age group, nearly 80% of these live in sub-Saharan Africa and more than 70% of these infections occur in adolescent girls and young women. Not only do these adolescent girls and young women have higher rates of HIV, they also acquire infection 5-7 years earlier than their male peers.

More than 18 million people now have access to life-saving AIDS treatment, 1.2 million more than at the end of last year, the United Nations said on Monday. With detailed data showing some of the many complexities of the HIV epidemic, the report found that people are particularly vulnerable to HIV at certain points in their lives (de Oliveira et al. Lancet HIV 2016). It called for 'life-cycle; approach to offer help and prevention measures for everyone at every stage of life.

In this report, UNAIDS is announcing that 18.2 million people now have access to HIV treatment. The Fast-Track response is working. Increasing treatment coverage is reducing AIDS-related deaths among adults and children. But the life-cycle approach, which highlight our phylogenetics manuscript (de Oliveira et al. Lancet HIV 2016), has to include more than just treatment.

This AWACC annual workshop is in the 10th edition and it is organized as a joint effort of the Centre for AIDS research (CFAR) of Harvard Medical School, SATuRN, CAPRISA, UKZN and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. AWACC objecitve is to translate the latest evidence-based research and apply best practice models of care into good clinical practice, specifically for resource constrained areas.

The concept behind this newsletter is that anyone with 15 minutes to spare can learn about the work of SATuRN. In this third 2016 issue of our newsletter we have included interesting news, blogs, reports, tweets, publications and training information produced by our network. We hope you enjoy it and find it informative. We welcome any feedback about content or format.

The biennial SASBi and SAGS congresses are the premier national scientific meetings on bioinformatics and genetics in South Africa. In total, 187 participats delivered 40 oral presentations and 65 posters in SASBi-SAGS-2016. This congress provided an exciting opportunity to learn about cutting-edge research in both disciplines, and to network with members of the two societies and with leading international scientists.

The Professional Development Programme (PDP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) at CAPRISA aims to develop and retain South African scientists and professionals of the highest calibre.

The Professional Development Programme (PDP) at CAPRISA aims to develop and retain South African scientists and professionals of the highest calibre. The genomics and bioinformatics project in HIV-1 phylogenetics and molecular epidemiology is inter-disciplinary in nature and involves collaboration between the CAPRISA's MRC HIV-TB Pathogenesis and Treatment Research Unit and the Flagship Program of the MRC, which are two of the most prestigious research programs in South Africa.