The PHA4GE Ethics and Data Sharing Platform continues to grow as more people are joining and participating in the community.
Several projects have kicked off from the platform (e.g. building frameworks and undertaking a systematic review on risks and benefits in health genomics studies in Africa, and a project to define a meta-data standard for ethical research data), which has led to these projects including collaborators from different countries and continents and different professional, educational and disciplinary backgrounds. This has made the sharing of ideas, expertise and the content of the projects richer, more diverse and more inclusive.
Community members are also reaching out asking for advice and sourcing the opinions and expertise of other community members on different topics, for example ethical issues that should be considered when sharing pathogen
sequence data.
We invite anyone interested to join us on this interactive platform, there is a short process to create your user account and then you can join our conversations and initiate or participate in projects about ethics and data-sharing.
by Anja Bedeker, on behalf of the PHA4GE Ethics and Data Sharing Working Group
Bioinformatics conference seeks to make a real difference to disease outbreaks
20th May 2025
At the 2025 ISCB-Africa ASBCB Bioinformatics Conference in Cape Town, UWC’s Professor Alan Christoffels urged students to bridge the gap between academic research and public health. Highlighting the role of bioinformatics and genomics in disease response, Christoffels emphasized the need for data standards, cross-border collaboration, and real-world impact in managing outbreaks across Africa and beyond.
