Stock identification: advancing in the knowledge of stock structure as a requirement for stock assessment

DEMERSTEM- Objectives of WP 1: -Improve the knowledge on the selected demersal stocks with a particular effort to solve the problems of stock identification and improvement of the quality of the data used for the assessment. -This follows the recommendations regularly made by CECAF.Peer reviewe

Biospecimens and Biobanking in Global Health

Biobanks provide a critical infrastructure to support research in human health. Biospecimens and their accompanying data are increasingly needed to support biomedical research and clinical care. The original text was initially published in the Handbook for Cancer Research in Africa. The value of this publication is great as it underlines the importance of biobanks in Africa as a key resource to increase quality scientific research and participate in global health research. Therefore, a revision to extend these principles to other low resource contexts, to include updated material and references and add the topic of biobank sustainability were relevant

Etiology of Kidney Diseases With Proteinuria in the Gambia/West Africa

In West Africa, kidney diseases are frequently seen, but diagnostic and therapeutic options are poor due to limited access to specialized facilities. To unravel the etiology and develop clinical guidelines, we collected clinical data and results of kidney biopsies in 121 pediatric and mostly young adult patients with edema and proteinuria in The Gambia. Workup included clinical examination, urine and serum analysis, and kidney biopsy findings. Selected cases were treated with steroids. Results The median age was 14.9 years (range 1.8–52.0) at presentation. The most frequent underlying histologies were post-infectious glomerulonephritis (PIGN) in 38%, focal-segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) in 30%, minimal change nephrotic syndrome (MCNS) in 15%, and membranous glomerulonephritis (MGN) in 10% of cases. Patients with PIGN were significantly younger and had less proteinuria and higher serum albumin levels than the other three. Infected scabies was seen more often in cases with PIGN. Clinical parameters could not distinguish patients with FSGS, MCNS, and MGN. Steroid response was prompt in patients with MCNS (remission in 10/10 cases) compared to FSGS (4/19) and MGN (0/4). In summary, the clinical histopathological correlation allows a better approach to therapy and can be the basis for urgently needed interventional studies in steroid-resistant cases

Genome-wide and fine-resolution association analysis of malaria in West Africa

We report a genome-wide association (GWA) study of severe malaria in The Gambia. The initial GWA scan included 2,500 children genotyped on the Affymetrix 500K GeneChip, and a replication study included 3,400 children. We used this to examine the performance of GWA methods in Africa. We found considerable population stratification, and also that signals of association at known malaria resistance loci were greatly attenuated owing to weak linkage disequilibrium (LD). To investigate possible solutions to the problem of low LD, we focused on the HbS locus, sequencing this region of the genome in 62 Gambian individuals and then using these data to conduct multipoint imputation in the GWA samples. This increased the signal of association, from P = 4 × 10(-7) to P = 4 × 10(-14), with the peak of the signal located precisely at the HbS causal variant. Our findings provide proof of principle that fine-resolution multipoint imputation, based on population-specific sequencing data, can substantially boost authentic GWA signals and enable fine mapping of causal variants in African populations