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SUMMARY:Can genomics improve health in Africa? Experience from sickle cell
  disease in Tanzania - Professor Julie Makani Associate Professor\, Depart
 ment of Haematology and Blood Transfusion\, Muhimbili University of Health
  and Allied Sciences
DTSTART:20201124T180000Z
DTEND:20201124T193000Z
UID:TALK152974@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:9337
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 cgC6.\n\n*Abstract:*\n\nSickle cell disease (SCD) is considered a model di
 sease for genomic research\, as it is a single-gene disorder\, causing hig
 h morbidity and mortality. The first report of gene therapy to cure SCD wa
 s from France in 2017\, demonstrating the clinical applicability of genomi
 cs to improve health and cure disease. The highest public health burden of
  SCD in the world is in Africa (80% of 300\,000 annual births)\, and there
  is concern that not only do individuals in Africa not have access to exis
 ting interventions\, but they will also not likely have access to these ne
 w gene-based curative therapies. Therefore\, countries in Africa have to d
 evelop a strategy to achieve two goals: the first goal is the establishmen
 t of health programmes that will provide universal access to effective evi
 dence-based health interventions to all individuals with SCD whilst simult
 aneously pursuing the second goal\, which is to conduct research that will
  lead to curative interventions using gene-based approaches. Tanzania is e
 stablishing a national public health programme for SCD and through a genom
 ic programme\, successfully conducted one of the first genome-wide associa
 tion studies in SCD in Africa (n=1700\; 2.4 million SNPs). The aim is to c
 onduct gene therapy trials to cure SCD in Tanzania and use the public heal
 th system to make this intervention accessible.\n\n*Speaker Profile:*\n\nP
 rofessor Julie Makani is a senior lecturer and specialist physician in the
  Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion at Muhimbili University o
 f Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS)\, in Tanzania\, Africa. Here\, she es
 tablished one of largest single-centre study cohorts for sickle cell disea
 se in the world. Prof Makani is Principal Investigator of the Sickle Pan A
 frican Research Consortium (SPARCO) within the SickleInAfrica network\, th
 e Co-Principal Investigator of SickleGenAfrica\, and the MUHAS site Co-Pri
 ncipal Investigator for H3ABioNet. She is a Fellow of the Tanzania Academy
  of Sciences. In 2011\, Prof Makani received the prestigious Royal Society
  Africa Award for her research and contributions to tackling sickle cell d
 isease\, a prevalent and debilitating health issue in the African continen
 t. In 2019\, she was inducted into the list of BBC 100 Women. Prof Makani 
 is currently working on the application of genomic research to improve hea
 lth and find a cure for sickle cell disease.
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