Chioma Umeha
Prof. Babatunde Salako, the Director General,
Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), has called on Nigerians to
embrace science and technology of Bioinformatics as core component to achieve
Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and to overcome the prevailing disease
burdens in the country.
Addressing participants at the first Nigerian
Bioinformatics Conference, participants who gathered at the Conference Hall of
the Nigerian Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) penultimate weekend to
discuss innovative ways of introducing Bioinformatics into the various segments
of the healthcare industry, Salako said Africa, especially Nigeria, cannot be
left out in the technological revolution that is ongoing around the world.
Prof Salako who spoke through Dr. Oliver Ezechi,
Principal Investigator, NIMR, said the conference was critical in bringing
international researchers together for the purpose of exploring the potentials
of Bioinformatics and Genomics technologies through research collaboration and
scientific innovations in Africa.
Bioinformatics is the science of storing,
retrieving and analysing large amounts of biological information. It is a
highly interdisciplinary field involving many different types of specialists,
including biologists, molecular life scientists, computer scientists and
mathematicians.
Prof. Salako, who was the host for the two-day
international conference, explained further that Bioinformatics represents a
new era of applied science involving multiple disciplines such as biochemistry,
cell biology, molecular biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics and computer
science.
According to him, Bioinformatics enables
organisation, storage, retrieval and analyses of biological data to obtain
actionable information for health policy and development of diagnostics, drugs
and vaccines.
He, however, listed some factors which could
hinder the implementation of Bioinformatics in the Nigeria, such as: “Lack of
dedicated Bioinformatics laboratories; low quality computer system; poor
internet connectivity in many tertiary institutions in Nigeria; erratic power
supply, and limited number of trained Bioinformatics/computational biologists”.
The Convener of the conference and President,
Nigerian Bioinformatics &Genomics Network (NBGN), Dr. Segun Fatumo,
disclosed the motive behind the conference, noting that they want to close the
existing gap in the delivery of healthcare in Nigeria.
Dr. Fatumo, who is also a scientist, at the School
of Technical Medicine, University of London, UK, admitted the knowledge of
Bioinformatics in Nigeria presently is very low, because people have little
awareness of what is going on, they are not well grounded on this area. “This
explains reasons for the conference, which will expose them to happenings in
other places and how they will be able to apply that method to their own area
research”.
For Professor Adenike Oshofisan, University of
Ibadan, one of the keynote speakers, the need to develop the Agricultural
system for effective production of healthy food items through the use of
sequencing and genomics, is paramount.
She explained that sequencing is about technology,
which is useful in controlling flood, pests, inadequate water, and other
natural hazards in agriculture.
In enhancing agricultural produce, we use
sequencing and genomics to develop them, and it has been discovered that
genetically modified products are usually pest resistance, even if when we have
the issue of pest, we are not going to lose all our crops.
So we need to do a lot of research in this area,
to create crops that will not need too much water, so that if there is water
scarcity, the crops will still grow.”
Other keynote speakers at the international
conference are: Prof. Nicki Tiffin, University of Cape Town; Prof. Ezekiel F.
Adebiyi, projects principal investigator and head, Covenant University
Bioinformatics Research Group; Prof. Christian Happi, Redeemer’s University;
Prof. Oyekanmi Nash, director, Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics Department
at the Nationall Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA);
Prof. Mayowa Owolabi, dean, Faculty of Clinical
Sciences, University of Ibadan, and pioneer director, Centre for Genomics and
Precision Medicine, University of Ibadan; and Raphael D Isokpehi,
Bethune-Cookman University, Florida, USA.
