“In Africa, we need to bridge the gap between public health initiatives like surveillance, outbreak response and research.”
During his mobility at the University of Glasgow, Dr. Nicholas appreciated that he had the opportunity to explore new layers of depth to the knowledge he already had in genomics, giving him a “more informative and comprehensive understanding of dynamics of infection”. He said, "in the past, I'd come across advanced techniques mostly in the area of HIV, but now I have seen they are being applied to mpox, which is one of the viruses I’m working with now, which was quite refreshing.” He is eager to bring this expanded expertise back to Uganda and collaborate with fellow scientists working on similar challenges.
After his time at the University of Ghana, where he fully immersed himself in computational work on generated genomes, Dr. Nicholas was able to identify some markers from data gathered during a recent mpox outbreak in Uganda that could be protective in infected individuals if they are enhanced. This discovery, he explains, could eventually lead to the development of new therapeutics for the disease.
Across the continent Dr. Nicholas observes a significant shift: many African institutions have now developed the capacity to conduct modern genomic investigations and generate sequences and genomics data that they previously were unable to do. This progress has reduced the dependence on shipping samples to the Global North where they had the necessary technologies that were previously absent in many African countries. “The idea was just to ship samples,” he recalls. “Data is generated here but analysed elsewhere. And then you lose that kind of autonomy on the data and the findings.” What is missing today, he argues, is translating basic research into something impactful that can have a tangible result like a diagnostic product or a vaccine. The problem is that most academics are not aware of intellectual property policies or working with Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). “Many scientists even do not know if those offices exist in the institutions where they are,” he notes.
One thing African universities can do to better respond to epidemics like mpox, Dr. Nicholas reflects, is to “bridge the gap between public health initiatives like surveillance and outbreak response with research.” His experience working hand in hand with the outbreak response team in Uganda was impactful for society and his science. “I think what African researchers can do better,” Dr. Nicholas reflects, “is to tag the public health surveillance and response teams with the researchers. They should move concurrently.” Having enough actionable data could translate into vaccines and therapeutics, and using public health data in research can better inform responses during epidemics.
Dr. Nicholas reflects that the translational aspect of research has been missing from health sciences in Africa. Enhancing the capacity to translate knowledge into something actionable will make it easier for his research to reach the patients that are suffering from the epidemics. With a focus on translation in his research on Ugandan mpox samples which he conducted with the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) at University of Ghana, the encouraging results provide important insights into the mechanisms underlying severe mpox disease. These findings could be taken to the next stage on a pathway towards the development of future diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic interventions that reduce the severity and mortality rates of this disease.
Meet Dr. Nicholas
Dr. Nicholas Bbosa is a molecular virologist specialising in pathogen genomics, phylodynamics, molecular epidemiology and bioinformatics. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Virology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and a Senior Scientist at the MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit. He also leads the Virus Surveillance and Discovery project at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), where he applies genomic and metagenomic approaches to detect, characterize and track pathogens of public health importance.
Translational research project: Developing an early warning system for mpox outbreaks
Host institutions
- University of Ghana – supervisor: Prof. Gordon Awandare
- University of Glasgow – supervisor: Prof. Lilach Sheiner
- University of Bern – supervisor: Dr. Phaedra Simitsek
About the AU-EU Health Partnership
The AU-EU Health Partnership is a broad coalition from Africa and Europe working together to strengthen health systems, improve health security, and increase access to pharmaceuticals in Africa. Encompassing myriad projects and partners at the continental, regional, and country levels, the initiative is making critical contributions to ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages (SDG 3). Health is also one of the pillars of the European Union’s Global Gateway strategy, which aims to boost smart, clean and secure connections in digital, energy and transport sectors, and to strengthen health, education and research systems across the world.
The partnership benefits from coordinated implementation and focuses on five interconnected themes:
- Manufacturing and access to vaccines, medicines, and health technologies (MAV+)
- Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)
- Sustainable health security using a "One Health" approach (HSOH)
- Digital health for health systems strengthening and universal health coverage (DH)
- Support for public health institutes (PHI)
Team Europe actors include the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control as well as EU Member States including Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.