Professor Christian Happi Visits The Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases.

Professor Christian Happi Visits Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases.
An avid Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics Prof. Christian Happi, Director of the African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases (ACEGID) at Redeemer’s University in Nigeria visits the Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases (CRID), February 18, 2021. Prof Happi is renowned for his leading achievements in the genomics of infectious diseases that hinder the development of the African countries including Malaria, Ebola, HIV, Lassa fever and now COVID-19. In Africa, He was the first to sequence in 48h the SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.

Accompanied by a team of collaborators from the Center for Disease prevention and Control (CDC) in the persons of Dr. Judith Shang, Dr. Clement Ndongmo and Dr. Adama, the cream of visitors was led by the Executive Director of CRID Prof. Charles Wondji to visit and acquaint themselves with the state-of-the-art molecular biology laboratory holding a Next generation sequencing platform (MinION, Oxford Nanopore) and the biosafety level 2 insectary which the Centre possesses. During the visit, Prof. Happi and the team of collaborators, commended the use of real time QPCR, sequencing with MinION and the HPLC platforms to top up research results.
As Prof. Happi went from lab to lab, a presentation which picked his interest was one made by Dr. DELIA Doreen Djuicy. She emphasised on ARN and DNA Extraction from field samples and subsequent Amplification Methods.

A final stop was made at CRID’s conference room where he was introduced to a plethora of scientific researchers at CRID who took turns to vividly share the extent, content and sphere of their work at CRID.

Having followed the presentations, Prof Happi’s take-home note was nothing short of satisfaction. He extensively applauded the efforts made by Prof. Charles Wondji for the calibre of researchers he is raising.
“I am astound at what I saw here today. It is so encouraging and so inspiring to see the work that Charles is doing and to see young Cameroonians doing high level science here. It is personally very significant and tells me there is hope and the future of scientific research is bright” says Prof. Happi.

As the powerhouse of scientific leadership would note, the dedication of researchers at CRID is a call to reconsider investing in research back home.
“This is personally encouraging for some of us to start making more commitment back home to support this good work and provide necessary support for the work to excel” He adds.
This visit is part of a collaboration between the two institutions and the CDC to provide genomic information about the SARS-CoV-2 strains that are active in Cameroon and tract the presence of COVID-19 variants which have currently hampered the efforts to control the pandemic.
In such a time when the world is plagued by the novel corona virus disease, CRID being a Centre fighting against such infectious diseases, observing all preventive measures such as wearing of facemasks, disinfecting hands and social distancing applied strictly.