The Pan-African Mosquito Control Association (PAMCA) and MalariaGEN are continuing to develop our existing collaboration by offering a travel award for individuals to attend an in-person Genomic Data Analysis Hackathon. The hackathon will be held alongside the 9th PAMCA Annual Conference & Exhibition taking place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in September 2023.
In 2022, PAMCA and MalariaGEN partnered to deliver a virtual training course on data analysis for genomic surveillance of African malaria vectors. The course was a step towards developing genomics capacity in Africa and empowering more scientists from the continent to contribute to the fight against malaria. Following the success of this programme, a bigger second edition is currently underway with 100 participants based in Africa. The hackathon and travel award are open to the PAMCA Bioinformatics Fellows and graduates from the first cohort of the PAMCA-MalariaGEN bioinformatics training course.
This year’s hackathon is set to take place over two days, with an exciting agenda lined up. On the first day, there will be time for face-to-face networking and small group support sessions for those who have been working on independent analyses of genomic data. Throughout the day, there will be numerous opportunities for the participants to share findings and ask questions. This involves everything from deeper dives into theoretical concepts to help interpreting results from analyses.
Day two will kick off with a training session led by VectorBase, who will guide participants through the use of their online bioinformatics tools for analysing vector genomes. Following that, there will be a series of workshops focusing on the transition from analysis of data to scientific publication. These interactive sessions will delve into useful techniques for extracting key findings from investigatory analyses and honing the skill of crafting impactful titles and abstracts. The day culminates with an engaging session on narrative design.
The MalariaGEN-PAMCA hackathon was a moment of intense work in a particularly relaxed atmosphere. It was a great day of learning, sharing, and meeting people. ~ Lemonde Bouafou from the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) in Madagascar, sharing his experience from the 2022 PAMCA-MalariaGEN hackathon.
But that is not all – a third pre-conference day is also being planned, during which participants will have the opportunity to network with and deliver presentations to members of National Malaria Control Programmes (NMCPs). Through this, they will be able to use genomic information to make a direct and impactful contribution to the fight against malaria on the continent.
To support training course graduates to attend the hackathon and PAMCA Annual Conference, PAMCA and MalariaGEN are offering a travel award up to a maximum of $3,300 each. For more details on the award, please contact support@malariagen.net.
To find out more about the PAMCA-MalariaGEN collaboration, please see https://www.malariagen.net/project/pamca-malariagen-collaboration/
To find out more about PAMCA, and information about the annual conference please see https://www.pamca.org/en
