Family picture at CRID
From 13 to 22 March 2023, 22 participants from renowned institutions such as Imperial College, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Mahidol University, Malaria Consortium, Institut Pierre Richet (IPR), and CRID (Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases) took part at the Resilience Against Future Threats (RAFT) Annual Scientific Meeting at the Franco Hôtel at Yaoundé. This meeting was financed by LSHTM through the RAFT project.
During the meeting, the training sessions were conducted to enhance RAFT’s researchers’ knowledge and skills on experimental hut trials, genetic analysis, characterization of insecticide resistance, and modelling. Emphasis was laid specifically on molecular tools to assess insecticide resistance (phenotypic resistance, genotyping, gene expression for Aedes and Anopheles mosquitoes). The participants seized this opportunity to visit CRID premises to give a glimpse at CRID facilities and research platforms. They really appreciated the equipment commonly used in the molecular biology unit, mosquito rearing, and bioassay unit in the insectarium and laboratory.
The main objective of this Annual Scientific Meeting was to evaluate the progress of RAFT in terms of strategy and science, and to ensure that it can achieve its ultimate outcome by the year 2026. This will be accomplished through the following: reinforcing the understanding of RAFT’s outcome and the means to achieve it, and promoting renewed commitment to this objective; facilitating collaboration and clarifying Year 4 outputs and activity plans; strengthening the consortium by fostering a better understanding and dissemination of each partner’s work, and how this contributes to the consortium’s ability to achieve RAFT’s outcome; providing a better understanding of the scientific issues and findings that RAFT is currently addressing and enhancing the knowledge and skills of partner researchers on key topics relevant to RAFT.
