American Society of Human Genetics to expand Developing Country Awards Program
/ASHG Announces Expansion to Developing Country Awards Program
25 Travel Awards Will Enhance Africa’s Participation in Scientific Dialogue
ROCKVILLE, Md. – The American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG), in collaboration with the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), is pleased to announce the addition of 25 awards to its annual Developing Country Awards Program. The new awards will enable 25 genetics trainees and/or early- to mid-career investigators from Africa who are currently working in Africa to attend the ASHG 2019 Annual Meeting, taking place October 15-19, 2019, in Houston, Texas. They will be supported by NHGRI; the Human, Heredity, and Health in Africa (H3Africa) consortium; and ASHG; and administered via the H3Africa Coordinating Center at the University of Cape Town.
“Through these awards, we hope to enhance the participation and visibility of promising African geneticists at the world’s largest genetics meeting,” said Kiran Musunuru, MD, PhD, 2019 Chair of the ASHG Program Committee. “By working to enrich the diversity of voices engaged in research worldwide, we reaffirm our commitment to global science, and we hope to grow similar partnerships in other regions in the future,” he said.
“In Africa, there is a growing research community using genomic methods in biomedical research to address the substantial disease burden,” explained Jennifer Troyer, PhD, H3Africa Program Director at NHGRI. “Over the past decade, the H3Africa Consortium and other international global health efforts have increased support for research leaders in Africa to address vital research topics there and to provide training for the next generation of African researchers, leading to the growth of genetics and genomics research on the continent,” said Dr. Troyer.
