Sequencing training of Odilon Paterne Nouatin (IRCB) and Setondji Islamiath Kissira (IRCB – LFHV), Beninese partners of AFROSCREEN
Sequencing training of Odilon Paterne Nouatin (IRCB) and Setondji Islamiath Kissira (IRCB – LFHV), Beninese partners of AFROSCREEN
As part of the AFROSCREEN project, trainings are intended to strengthen the capacities of laboratories in partner countries, particularly in the field of sequencing.
Feedback on the sequencing training of the Beninese partner laboratories IRCB and LFHV, organized from February to April 2022, within the laboratory of the International Joint Unit TransVIHMI in Montpellier.
For 2 months, Odilon Paterne Nouatin, biologist at the IRCB (Benin Clinical Research Institute) laboratory and Setondji Islamiath Kissira, engineer at the LFHV (Viral Haemorrhagic Fever Laboratory), both AFROSCREEN partners in Benin, were welcomed into the laboratory of the TransVIHMI International Joint Unit (UMI) in Montpellier in order to receive complete training in sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 on the NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) platform. They were able to immediately put into practice what they had learned by carrying out the sequences of around 200 Beninese samples taken between mid-December 2021 and early January 2022 in 6 of the 12 departments of Benin. These retrospective analyzes made it possible to determine that Omicron was already circulating in the country before the arrival of the 4th wave, which was linked to this variant, thus confirming the importance of setting up national genomic surveillance to anticipate the emergence of new variants linked to the COVID-19 epidemic.
At the end of their training within the Montpellier team, and in particular with Christelle Butel and Laetitia Serrano (engineers), Nicolas Muñoz Fernandez (bioinformatician), Ahidjo Ayouba and Martine Peeters (virologists), Odilon Paterne Nouatin and Setondji Islamiath Kissira are now autonomous to set up the SARS-CoV-2 sequencing activities that will be carried out at the IRCB with the support of the LFHV.
Within the framework of the project, in Benin, the LFHV is in charge of carrying out the screening of mutations by PCR of Beninese samples and the IRCB is in charge of carrying out the sequencing and collecting and analyzing epidemiological data on the samples reveling the presence of variants of concern.
In addition, through the AFROSCREEN project and this training opportunity over a long period of time, the partnership between IRD (through the two research units TransVIHMI and MERIT) and IRCB and LFHV is sustainably strengthened.
Odilon Paterne Nouatinworking on the NGS platform of the UMI TransVIHMI laboratory
For 2 months, Odilon Paterne Nouatin, biologist at the IRCB (Benin Clinical Research Institute) laboratory and Setondji Islamiath Kissira, engineer at the LFHV (Viral Haemorrhagic Fever Laboratory), both AFROSCREEN partners in Benin, were welcomed into the laboratory of the TransVIHMI International Joint Unit (UMI) in Montpellier in order to receive complete training in sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 on the NGS (Next Generation Sequencing) platform. They were able to immediately put into practice what they had learned by carrying out the sequences of around 200 Beninese samples taken between mid-December 2021 and early January 2022 in 6 of the 12 departments of Benin. These retrospective analyzes made it possible to determine that Omicron was already circulating in the country before the arrival of the 4th wave, which was linked to this variant, thus confirming the importance of setting up national genomic surveillance to anticipate the emergence of new variants linked to the COVID-19 epidemic.
At the end of their training within the Montpellier team, and in particular with Christelle Butel and Laetitia Serrano (engineers), Nicolas Muñoz Fernandez (bioinformatician), Ahidjo Ayouba and Martine Peeters (virologists), Odilon Paterne Nouatin and Setondji Islamiath Kissira are now autonomous to set up the SARS-CoV-2 sequencing activities that will be carried out at the IRCB with the support of the LFHV.
Within the framework of the project, in Benin, the LFHV is in charge of carrying out the screening of mutations by PCR of Beninese samples and the IRCB is in charge of carrying out the sequencing and collecting and analyzing epidemiological data on the samples reveling the presence of variants of concern.
In addition, through the AFROSCREEN project and this training opportunity over a long period of time, the partnership between IRD (through the two research units TransVIHMI and MERIT) and IRCB and LFHV is sustainably strengthened.
Odilon Paterne Nouatinworking on the NGS platform of the UMI TransVIHMI laboratory