The West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) organised a two-week intensive training workshop for researchers to track insecticide resistance and strengthen genomic surveillance efforts.
The workshop, held from March 31 to April 19, 2025, is one of the deliverables of the NIHR-funded Genomic Surveillance of Malaria in West Africa Project led by Dr. Lucas Amenga-Etego, Senior Research Fellow at WACCBIP.
The workshop was a collaboration between the Genomic Surveillance Unit, Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and WACCBIP.
Participants were taken through the entire laboratory and bioinformatics workflow for amplicon sequencing of insecticide resistance markers and ancestral informative markers for molecular species identification. The training began with an overview of the wet lab protocols for critical preparatory steps, including primer rehydration, primer extension pre-amplification (PEP) PCR, pooling, purification, and size selection, necessary to produce quality DNA libraries for sequencing.
Before loading the Illumina MiSeq for sequencing, participants evaluated data integrity as part of final quality control checks. The workshop provided participants with skills in bioinformatics, focusing on data analysis using the Ampseeker pipeline developed by Sanjay and his colleagues at LSTM, UK, for processing raw reads, identifying genetic variations associated with resistance in Anopheles gambiae.
This training represents a significant step in enhancing local expertise and capacity to respond to the evolving challenges of malaria transmission and insecticide resistance across West Africa.
About the Project
The Genomic Surveillance of Malaria in West Africa Project aims to better understand the genomic landscape of malaria parasites and vectors in West Africa and help National Malaria Control Programs (NMCPs) tailor their responses and save lives. With support from the UK’s National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), the idea is to build on existing genomics expertise in The Gambia and Ghana to establish hubs where samples from countries across the region can be sequenced. By collecting, sequencing, and analysing samples locally, NMCPs can access more timely data on drug and insecticide resistance and make informed policy decisions. By integrating the data across the Gambia and Ghana hubs, we can begin to understand how these genetic threats are spreading across the West African sub-region.
