First recipients of research grants to support genomic studies in Africa announced

Bethesda, Md., Mon., Oct. 8, 2012 — African scientists will conduct genomic research on kidney disease, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, tuberculosis and African sleeping sickness through inaugural grants of the Human Heredity and Health in Africa Consortium (H3Africa). The grants were announced by the two funding organizations, the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the Wellcome Trust, a global charity based in London. The organizations also awarded grants for the development of an African bioinformatics network and two pilot biorepositories, which are banks that maintain biospecimens for future scientific investigation.