OICR's Dr. Michelle Brazas takes bioinformatics education to Africa
Dr. Michelle Brazas (right) with students and faculty in Nigeria.
An invitation to share her knowledge with students in the developing world inspired Dr. Michelle Brazas to make her first trip to Nigeria, but it’s the optimism and perseverance of the Nigerian scientific community that inspires her to keep going back.
This summer, Brazas accepted an invitation from Dr. Nash Oyekanmi to teach a workshop in Abuja, Nigeria. It was her third time collaborating with Oyekanmi, a professor at the University of Lagos, to share her specialized knowledge with keen local students through advanced bioinformatics workshops.
Training in Nigeria was a challenge from the start. Brazas, who is Manager of Bioinformatics Education and a Research Associate at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, was joined by two other instructors, Dr. Chuong Huynh and Dr. Dhanasekarandr Vijaykrishna. They were all aware that they would be leaving behind many luxuries that North Americans are accustomed to, but still surprised by the state of the Nigerian laboratories.
“The computer lab contained only enough functional computers to train half the class, so the class had to huddle around working computers,” says Brazas. “Moreover, the nations’ energy supply would often be cut off and generators had to be started up, making teaching bioinformatics on a computer rather difficult.”
Brazas says it’s little wonder that African professors find it almost impossible to offer their students the type of instruction that undergraduate students in Canada would take for granted: without expensive research equipment and a consistent power supply, it is difficult to do much of the “wet lab” work that people commonly associate with biology. But bioinformatics is different.
Bioinformaticians use computers to integrate and analyze biological data. In today’s research arena, bioinformatics is involved in almost every other aspect of life science research – which makes it possible for Nigerian scientists to research problems of relevance in their communities.
Even if the power supply is intermittent and the Internet connections run at dial-up speed, it is still possible to conduct bioinformatic research. Determined bioinformaticians can start a study with just a computer and open-source software downloaded through the Internet.
“At the end of the workshop, we saw students excited about their projects and collaborating more and more,” says Brazas. ”Given the shortcomings apparent in Nigerian laboratories, we encouraged them to share equipment, information and expertise, and to continue co-operating with each other in their professional lives.”
Brazas is confident the spirit of the Nigerian scientists, coupled with their newly acquired knowledge, will provide a great launch pad for their research.
“Overall, it was an eye-opener that these young researchers could remain so positive and optimistic about science in Nigeria despite the obvious obstacles to basic research,” says Brazas. “It’s inspiring, and it makes me very glad that I was able to help train Nigeria’s future scientists.”
