Centers

WANIDA > Centers > WACCBIP
Back

WACCBIP
West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens
University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana

Center managers :

  • Center Director : Prof. Gordon Awandare
  • Deputy Director : Dr. Dorothy Yeboah-Manu
  • Coordinators : Mrs. Sika Menka (Grants Manager), Mr. Felix Kyei (Administrator)
  • Focal points : Dr. Osbourne Quaye, Monitoring and Evaluation officer
  • Deputy Centre Leader: Peter Quashie (in charge of research, pquashie@ug.edu.gh).

Contacts : 

WANIDA > Centers > WACCBIP
Back

WACCBIP

WACCBIP

WACCBIP
West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens
University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana

Center managers :

  • Center Director : Prof. Gordon Awandare
  • Deputy Director : Dr. Dorothy Yeboah-Manu
  • Coordinators : Mrs. Sika Menka (Grants Manager), Mr. Felix Kyei (Administrator)
  • Focal points : Dr. Osbourne Quaye, Monitoring and Evaluation officer
  • Deputy Centre Leader: Peter Quashie (in charge of research, pquashie@ug.edu.gh).

Contacts : 

Established in 2014, the West African Center for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) is a grant-funded African Center of Excellence to provide master's and PhD training, as well as targeted short courses in cell and molecular biology.

The center also has a mandate to conduct applied research into the biology and pathogenesis of tropical diseases, and to increase research output and innovation by strengthening collaboration between biomedical scientists and industry/private sector leaders in the sub-region.

Having won two of the largest and most competitive research/training capacity funding programs in Africa (the World Bank's African Centers of Excellence (ACE) grant and the Wellcome Trust's African Initiative for the Development of Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science (DELTAS) grant), the Center has built a reputation for excellence in its core areas of research, training and scientific citizenship.

WACCBIP's mission is to improve the diagnosis, prevention and control of tropical diseases in sub-Saharan Africa by providing advanced training and research excellence in cellular and molecular biology. The center conducts high-quality research into infectious diseases, neglected tropical diseases and non-communicable diseases, with an impact on healthcare delivery and contributing to drug discovery and vaccine development in Africa.

Scientific topics :

  • Disease pathogenesis and immunity
  • Pathogen genomics/bioinformatics
  • Host genetics/genomics, host/pathogen interactions
  • Molecular diagnostics, molecular epidemiology for surveillance
  • Discovery of targets for drug and vaccine development
  • Priority diseases: malaria, trypanosomiasis, tuberculosis, Burili ulcer, HIV, rotavirus, influenza, dengue fever; Non-communicable diseases: cancers, chronic kidney disease, sickle cell disease, diabetes.

Key capabilities :

  • Next-generation sequencing laboratory
  • High-throughput multicolor flow cytometry and cell sorting, mass spectrometry, gene expression assays, primer synthesis and protein expression and purification
  • Biomedical High-Performance Computing Unit (BHPCU) to provide access to cluster computing services and scientific software for data analysis, modeling/simulation and information dissemination

Key regional and global partners

  1. The African Academy of Sciences
  2. Wellcome Trust
  3. Ghana Health Service
  4. UKaid
  5. The Royal Society Excellence 
  6. The Francis Crick Institute
  7. Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA) network
  8. ARTIC Network
  9. NIHR, National Institute for Health Research
  10. MalariaGEN
  11. Crick African Network (CAN)
  12. ARUA, African Research Universities Alliance)
  13. GCRF, Global Challenges Research Fund
  14. The Rockefeller Foundation
  15. Research Councils UK
Other centers