By  Nathaniel Crabbe | YEN

Professor Fiifi Ofori-Acquah has been awarded a $3 million grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. The UK-trained Ghanaian researcher will use the funds in his research to sequence the whole genome DNA of children with sickle cell disease (SCD) in Ghana.

The sequencing will include the first 500 cases of a target of 1,000 Ghanaian children with severe genetic disorders

Professor Fiifi Ofori-Acquah, the Director of the West African Genetic Medicine Centre (WAGMC), has been awarded a $3 million grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), USA. He submitted his application for the grant through the University of Pittsburgh, where he works as an Associate Professor of Medicine and Human Genetics.

Latest Posts

• StorsPay, a Nigerian Decentralized Retail Investing Platform, Raises $320,000 and Gets Accepted into Techstars NYC Accelerator
• Ugandans in USA Pool Funds to Support Impressive ‘Young Engineers’ Team at World Robotics Championship
• Samini headlines maiden edition of Adonko Ghana Festival Ohio
• Nigerian Artist, Oluseyi Soyege, Wins Another Top U.S. Laurel
• Hundreds of Sudanese-Americans terrified for family and friends back home

Per a report by the University of Ghana, the UK-trained Ghanaian doctor, who is also the Dean of the School of Biomedical and Allied Health Sciences (SBAHS) at the College of Health Sciences, is expected to use the fund in his research to sequence the whole genome DNA of children with sickle cell disease (SCD) in Ghana.

His DNA sequencing studies will include samples of participants enrolled in the Sickle Cell Disease Genomics of Africa (SickleGenAfrica) Network, an existing $5.4 million NIH project that his team has been working on since 2018.

Professor Ofori-Acquah will collaborate with a team of SickleGenAfrica investigators in Ghana to perform his work. The new NIH grant will pay for sequencing of the first 500 cases of a target of 1,000 Ghanaian children with severe genetic disorders, he has said.