We organize a wealth of activities to enhance the scientific capacities of local laboratories in low-income countries.
Our initiatives are focused on three key areas: research, technology transfer and training. Information sharing within the GABRIEL community is facilitated by the publication of scientific papers, the writing of newsletters and the organization of regular meetings between network members.
Approach
To foster capacity-building, we seek to:
- Guide our partners in building infectious pathogens surveillance programs, clinical and operational research programs.
- Build synergies and create opportunities so that network members can share research approaches, results and create new projects.
- Support young researchers by awarding thesis grants on the basis of their applications.
- Be an incentive for participating laboratories to determine the most relevant research priorities according to the local context.
Technology Transfer
Technology transfer can be carried out in different contexts:
- in response to epidemics, the latest example being the SARS-CoV2 epidemic.
- as part of the implementation of a clinical research project requiring tests to characterize pathogens (e.g. molecular typing of S. pneumoniae, M. tuberculosis) or an operational research project aimed at evaluating the performance and cost/effectiveness of a test (e.g. evaluation of prognostic biomarkers) or at evaluating a global strategy for screening and management of an infectious disease (e.g. evaluation of screening tools).
Training
Various onsite training workshops have been organized in response to the needs expressed by our partners to strengthen their knowledge in molecular biology (New Generation Sequencing, Typing of S. pneumoniae, screening of SARS-CoV2 variants), Bioinformatics, or in other fields such as arbovirus diagnosis.
Quality assurance & biosafety
To address essential challenges in clinical biology and research, we support:
- Audits, GCLP, SOP, EQA
- Accredited laboratories
- Labs moving toward accreditation
Key figures
- 180+ scientists trained on new diagnostic tools
- 50+ workshops organized
- 900+ scientists trained in molecular biology, immunology, bioinformatics, epidemiology, biosafety/biosecurity, quality assurance, etc.
- 10 e-learning modules on epidemiology, clinical research, molecular biology, Zika diagnostics, biobanking
- 75+ collaborative publications since 2012