Mission
Providing Tools for Conducting Cutting-Edge Research
The mission of the South Africa-Pittsburgh Public Health Genomic Epidemiology Research Training Program (SAPPHGenE) is to provide South African investigators from historically-disadvantaged backgrounds with the multidisciplinary tools needed to conduct cutting-edge research in public health genomic and metagenomic epidemiology of respiratory and invasive bacterial and fungal diseases.
The Program Directors are Dr. Lee Harrison, Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) and the head of the Microbial Genomic Epidemiology Laboratory at Pitt and Dr. Anne von Gottberg, Section Lead of the laboratory of the Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD ).
Lee Harrison, MD
Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine
University of Pittsburgh
Anne von Gottberg, MB BCh, DTM&H
Associate Professor of Clinical Microbiology And Infectious Diseases
University of the Witwatersrand
The program includes a multidisciplinary group of experienced mentors at three training sites: Pitt, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, and NICD. We will provide a combination of non-degree and post-graduate (masters and PhD) degree training. Degrees will be provided by the University of the Witwatersrand, located 15 kilometers from NICD, and the degree research using South African data and specimens being conducted at the training sites in Atlanta and Pittsburgh.
Trainees will have access to substantial research training opportunities and resources that are available at the training sites. (For more details about these sites, please see our “Institutions” pages.) The focus will encompass training in genomic epidemiology and bioinformatics, with emphasis on the use of these disciplines in public health.
The Program
Preparing Successful Investigators
Our guiding principle is that our trainees should have educational experiences that expose them to a broad spectrum of advanced, cutting edge, and novel approaches to best prepare them to become successful investigators in public health genomic epidemiology, either in academia or in public health, where much of the innovative research in this field is occurring.
Therefore, the overall objective of SAPPHGenE is to provide a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and coordinated team-mentoring effort to trainees to foster high quality, independent investigators who have the technical, intellectual and leadership skills that will allow them to make major contributions to the field of public health genomic epidemiology. This will be accomplished through a co-mentorship structure, with one mentor being based at NICD and another based at University of Pittsburgh or CDC.
Program Features
Developing a Generation of Research Mentors
- Fulfills an unmet need in Africa in public health genomic epidemiology, a rapidly expanding field that is transforming global public health
- Establishes a dynamic training program that focuses on bacterial and fungal genomics
- Leverages existing collaborations between investigators at NICD, CDC, and University of Pittsburgh
- Includes mentors at the three institutions with expertise in epidemiology, genomics and metagenomics, and bioinformatics
- Includes an excellent Training Advisory Committee that is well suited to assist and guide our program
- Aligns with global activities in public health genomic epidemiology, including CDC’s Advanced Molecular Detection Program and other initiatives such as Africa CDC.
- Will provide a model for the introduction of public health genomic epidemiology into other parts of Africa and the developing world.
Goal
Monitor, Prevent, Control
The ultimate goal of the program is to provide local capacity to monitor, prevent, and control our target bacterial and fungal diseases, some of which are vaccine preventable or antimicrobial resistant and all which are major causes of morbidity and mortality in South Africa, the rest of Africa, and globally. The training opportunities offered will substantially increase research capacity and foster the development of a generation of public health genomic research mentors in South Africa. Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have included training in SARS-CoV-2 genomic epidemiology to our program.
Ultimately, we anticipate that NICD will serve as regional training center within Africa for research in and practice of public health genomics in Africa.