June 2022: Fleming Fund fellowship mentor Dr. Bryan Wee spent a week at Makerere University providing technical guidance to aid analysis of genome data. Bioinformatics and genomic data analysis are key areas where the Fleming Fund fellowship scheme is providing training to support capacity building in surveillance of antimicrobial resistance. Fleming Fund fellowship mentor Dr Bryan Wee at the University of Edinburgh recently spent a week at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, working with staff at the Research Centre for Tropical Diseases and Vector Control, and Fleming Fund fellow Franklin Mayanja, from the National Animal Disease Diagnostics and Epidemiology Centre in Entebbe. Image Hands-on technical guidance has been critical to ensure uptake of bioinformatics training into day-to-day practice. Antibiotic resistance gene profiling During the training sessions, the team learned how a typical bioinformatics workflow is used to process bacterial genome sequence data for antibiotic resistance gene profiling, and performed analysis of real bacterial genomic data. The sessions also included discussions about including how antibiotic resistance profiling using genome sequences might be integrated into future workflows at the Research Centre for Tropical Diseases and Vector Control and the National Animal Disease Diagnostics and Epidemiology Centre, to embed training into practical experience. For me, this was an opportunity to better understand the situation in the fellows' home institutions and to find out how the rest of the fellowship programme can be adapted to better meet these needs. Dr. Bryan WeeCore Scientist at the Roslin Institute and Fleming Fund fellowship mentor Image The sessions provided valuable opportunity to extend bioinformatics training to other colleagues in the Research Centre for Tropical Diseases and Vector Control. Wider links developed Alongside Dr Wee's training sessions, Dr. Adrian Muwonge, Co-Director of the Fleming Fund Fellowship Scheme at the University of Edinburgh, fellowship mentor Dr Stella Mazeri and fellowship scheme project officer Romana Gorjanc, toured the Research Centre for Tropical Diseases and Vector Control. During the visit, they observed the various veterinary diagnostic assays now available in the laboratories, including infrastructure for metabarcoding and whole genome sequencing. The University of Edinburgh team also discussed how future contributions from Fleming Fund fellowship activities at the University, could support implementation of bioinformatics analysis into routine surveillance of AMR for animal health in Uganda. Image L to R: Dr. Stella Mazeri, Dr. Adrian Muwonge, Franklin Mayanja and Romana Gorjanc Related Links Dr. Bryan Wee profile Dr. Stella Mazeri profile Dr. Adrian Muwonge profile Fleming Fund Fellowship Scheme Makerere University Publication date 16 Aug, 2022
