Our genomics and bioinformatics research program was selected as a keynote presentation in the 1st South African Illumina User Group Meeting, 2015


By: Tulio de Oliveira, Franschoek, South Africa, 31 March 2015 - Continuing advances in next generation genomic analysis are rapidly changing the way we approach our research. The setup of our high-throughput genomics facility at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, in collaboration with Africa Centre and Health and Population Studies allowed our research group to produce HIV-1 complete genomes at an unprecedented scale.

We had been invited by Illumina to showcase our new genomics facility and our scientific results. I had the great privilege to present in 45 minutes the process of setting up our genomics and bioinformatics facility at Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine. I also showed how we had produced 500 HIV-1 whole genomes in the first 6 months of this facility. The presentation also highlighted some of our recent results, which shows that hot spots of HIV transmission and increase of drug resistance in rural South Africa.

The user meeting was attended by approximate 100 delegates, including a number of senior researchers and professors from South Africa. In addition, 7 staff from Illumina came to South Africa for this meeting. I had found very useful as a forum to discuss cutting edge genomics and bioinformatics applications with specialists.

For more information, please see:

- Abstract from the 1st South African Illumina User Group Meeting, 9-10 March 2015, Franschoek, South Africa.

- Videos that highlight the construction of our genomics facility.

- Webpage of our genomics facility at Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN in collaboration with Africa Centre.

- Tulio de Oliveira webpage at bioafrica.net.

News date: 2015-03-31

Links:

http://www.bioafrica.net/manuscripts/IlluminaUserConferenceSouthAfrica2015.pdf