Oxford Brookes Bioimaging scientists help train African students and researcher in Ghana

Wednesday, 23 January 2019

Oxford Brookes Bioimaging scientists are in Accra, Ghana at the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) helping to run a course on the modern technologies used to investigate the biology of infectious diseases.

WACCBIP is a World Bank and Wellcome Trust funded research institute which is training the next generation of scientific leaders in Africa focusing on infectious diseases, investing in both people and infrastructure.

One element of the course focuses on cutting-edge microscopy, which is the focus of the Oxford Brookes researchers. Last year WACCBIP took delivery of a Carl Zeiss 800 microscope with Airyscan super resolution imaging, which makes it one of the most advanced microscopes in the whole of Africa. Oxford Brookes University has the same microscope system as WACCBIP and these two instruments have now been ‘twinned’. A training program and exchange visits for WACCBIP researchers are being developed that will help to develop WACCBIP as a regional centre of excellence for microscopy mirroring the Oxford Brookes Bioimaging unit.

The above image shows Professor Sue Vaughan, Dr Jack Sunter and Dr Joe McKenna of the Oxford Brookes Bioimaging Unit with Dr Yaw Aniweh, a Research Fellow at the West African Centre for the Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens imaging the malaria parasite in red blood cells on their new Zeiss Airyscan microscope.