Notice Number: NOT-RM-13-023

Key Dates
Release Date: August 15, 2013

Issued by
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Office of Strategic Coordination (Common Fund)

Purpose

This notice announces two public sessions of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Consortium Meeting in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa.

The NIH Common Fund, in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, launched the H3Africa Consortium in 2010. H3Africa is designed to facilitate a contemporary research approach to the study of the genomic and environmental determinants of common diseases in Africa. Since Africa is a source of extensive human genetic variation, genomic analyses of African populations will clarify understanding of diseases for all populations. he goals of H3Africa are to enhance genomic expertise among African scientists, to contribute to infrastructure development (particularly biorepositories and a bioinformatics network), and to establish networks of African investigators working on research projects that address health inequities in both communicable and non-communicable diseases and will eventually lead to health benefits in all populations.  More information about the H3Africa initiative and a white paper with recommendations for the program can be found at www.h3africa.org.

The H3Africa Consortium will be meeting in Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa in early October. The two meeting events that are open to the public are:

Grantees’ Presentations, October 5, 2013 8:30 a.m. 6:00 p.m.:
Primary investigators from H3Africa Consortium will present their projects and recent progress on the third day of the Consortium Meeting, October 5, 2013. The session is intended to provide the scientific community an overview of the funded projects by H3African scientists.

Genome Analysis Session, October 6, 2013 8 a.m. 12 p.m.:
Genetic variation is higher in Africa than anywhere else in the world and is a particularly significant factor in genomic studies in Africa. As part of its development of genomic research in Africa, the H3Africa Consortium will host a session on "Strategies for Effective Study of Genetic Variation in Africa" in Johannesburg, South Africa on October 6, 2013. The session is intended to provide a platform for discussions on studying genetic variation in Africa, and will be open to anyone in the scientific community interested in the topic. The meeting will focus on: 1) Current state of knowledge of genomic variation across Africa; 2) The best tools to effectively capture such variation for genetic association studies (including GWAS); 3) Provide H3Africa investigators the opportunity to receive input from the broader scientific community and industry partners; and 4) How H3Africa can advance knowledge of genome variation across Africa.

Meeting Details

Grantees' Presentations:
Date: October 5, 2013
Time: 8:30a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Location: The Radisson Blu Hotel
Rivonia Rd
Johannesburg 2196
South Africa

Genome Analysis Session:
Date: October 6, 2013
Time: 8:30a.m. - 12:00p.m.
Location: The Maslow
Corner Grayston Drive & Rivonia Road
Sandton, 2031
Gauteng, South Africa

At present there are no plans for remote access to the meeting; a meeting report will be posted at the H3Africa site after the meeting. If these plans change, the new plans will be published through the NIH Guide.

Registration

While registration for the session is not required, we kindly ask the interested party to inform the H3Africa meeting organizers of their intent by registering at http://surveys.h3abionet.org/h3ajhb-open. This will enable the meeting organizers to provide participants with any updates or additional logistics/information about the sessions. There is no fee to attend these public sessions. The NIH will not be able to provide funds for travel to these sessions.

Inquiries

Please direct all inquiries to:

Jane L. Peterson, Ph.D. and
Quynh Nguyen
National Human Genome Research Institute
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD
Phone: 301-496-7531
Email: h3africa@nih.gov