For 3 days, the quaint city of Ede in Osun State, the state of the living spring, was buzzing with good cheer and celebration.
Close to the capital city of Osogbo, Ede is home to the Africa Center of Excellence for the Genomics of infectious diseases (ACEGID). Between the 7th and 9th of October 2024, ACEGID celebrated the 10th Anniversary of its monumental existence with a One Health Genomics Symposium themed “Celebrating African Excellence in Genomics and Public Health”, as well as the launch of its new state-of-the-art Genomics Center.
Founded by the Distinguished Professor Christian Happi, ACEGID has been impactful leaders in infectious disease outbreak response, capacity building and diagnostic surveillance across Africa.
This 3-day symposium, supported by ISN Medical, leading distributors of Medical & laboratory equipment and technologies, and channel partners to Illumina INC, was graced with an outstanding line-up of world-renowned experts, policymakers, industry leaders including Dr Francis Collins, former Director of the National institutes of Health (NIH), Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, the honourable Minister of Health and Social Welfare of Nigeria, Prof Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad Institute, Prof Shadrach Akindele, the Vice Chancellor of Redeemers University, where ACEGID is situated, among many others.
The symposium featured Keynote speeches by Dr Francis Collins, Prof Dyann Wirth, a most insightful fireside chat led by Prof Eric Lander, and Guest speeches by Gretchen Weightman of Illumina, Dr Placide Mbala, Prof Oyewale Tomori, to mention a few. The Abstract presentations and Poster presentations gave a peek at how incredibly exciting and challenging the life of a scientist can be. The Break-out sessions gave an opportunity for attendees to discuss better on topics centered around Zoonotic, Human Genomics and Environmental Genomics.
With the ACEGID transitioning to Institute of Genomics and Global Health (IGH), ISN Medical is proud to continue to support in the proliferation of groundbreaking work, empowerment, and ability building for African Scientists at the Center. We all anticipate the increased adoption of personalized healthcare, discovered by African for Africans.