CSIR hosted an African Regional Cooperative Agreement for Research, Development and Training Related to Nuclear Science and Technology (AFRA) workshop on mutation and in vitro techniques at the CSIR campus in Pretoria from 13 to 19 July 2014.
CSIR’s Tshidi Moroka assuring participants that the CSIR’s doors are open to all researchers in Africa.
The purpose of this workshop was to provide participants with theoretical, as well as practical analytical information on mutation induction, and the application of in vitro and in vivo molecular screening tools in handling mutant populations during crop mutation breeding programmes. The programme is jointly funded by the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in collaboration with the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa).
It included 30 participants from various African countries and comprised lectures and practical sessions on mutation techniques, handling mutant populations, as well as practical analytical methods in proteomics, metabolomics, genomics and phonemics.
Tshidi Moroka, acting competence area manager for natural products and agroprocessing research at the CSIR; Dr Ereck Chakauya, who is an interim network manager at the Southern African Network for Biosciences (SANBio); and Dr Luke Mehlo of the CSIR, all echoed the sentiment that African researchers are welcome at the CSIR; and that Africa’s challenges of finding scientific solutions to its problems lay within collaborative efforts.
Speaking after the training, Mehlo explained, “One of the primary objectives of the training programme is to make science accessible even to the common person on the street, and to our mothers and grandparents in the remotest villages.”
Adding to his colleague’s remarks, Dr Sandile Ndimande, a postdoctoral CSIR researcher explained, “The challenge is to ensure that scientists engage, not only among themselves, but with government, policymakers and the communities to ensure adoption.”
Course coordinator, Prof Rajbir Sangwan, Director, Bio/Technology Center, Labo AEB-ADYSAN, Université de Picardie Jules Verne in France, was delighted with this development and concurred that the training programme was premised on taking science solutions from socio-economic and development challenges in Africa, out of the laboratory and into the rest of Africa and communities.
 Thirty research scientists from various African countries participated in training on mutation and in vitro techniques, which was funded by the joint FAO/IAEA in collaboration with Necsa. |
By Kulani Chauke Biosciences 18 August 2014
