Course Run Website
Course Time Table 2026
Course Informatics Guide
Kidney disease is a major and growing health challenge across Africa, yet African populations remain vastly underrepresented in genetic studies of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Harnessing Africa’s unparalleled genomic diversity to understand kidney disease risk and improve patient outcomesrequires both cutting-edge science and a new generation of African leaders in kidney genomics.
This inaugural KidneyGenAfrica short course, delivered in partnership with Wellcome Connecting Science, will bring together postgraduate and early-career researchers from across the continent to strengthen knowledge, practical skills, and collaborative networks in the genetic epidemiology of kidney disease. Over five intensive days at the University of the Witwatersrand, participants will explore CKD phenotypes in African populations, critically appraise genetic contributors such as APOL1, and gain hands-on experience with genome-wide association studies, polygenic risk scores, and emerging multi-omics approaches.
Through expert-led seminars, interactive discussions, and practical data analysis sessions, the course will also provide a platform to examine ethical and community considerations in African genomics, share research across diverse contexts, and develop project proposals. Participants will leave with new technical skills, strengthened professional networks, and a deeper understanding of how to drive equitable kidney genomics research across Africa.
Postgraduate students, early- to mid-career investigators, and clinician-scientists in medical or allied medical disciplines who are involved in kidney disease research in African ancestry populations.
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Explain the burden, phenotypes, and genetic contributors of chronic kidney disease in African populations, with reference to global comparisons.
- Critically evaluate emerging evidence from genomic, epidemiological, and biomarker studies of kidney disease in Africa.
- Apply core methods in genetic epidemiology and bioinformatics (e.g., GWAS, risk scores, multi-omics) to interpret kidney disease data.
- Assess the ethical, regulatory, and community engagement challenges of genomics research in Africa and propose practical solutions.
- Design collaborative research proposals and outline strategies for advancing kidney genomics leadership in Africa.
Course Instructors
- Michele Ramsay, University of Witwatersrand
- Segun Fatumo, Queen Mary University of London & MRC Uganda
- June Fabian, University of Witwatersrand
- Cassianne Robinson-Cohen, Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center
- Sola Ojewunmi, Queen Mary University of London
- Cristian Pattaro, Eurac Research
- Jean-Tristan Brandenburg, University of Witwatersrand
- Eleftheria Zeggini, Institute of Translational Genomics in Helmholtz Zentrum München
- Robert Kalyesubula, Makerere University
- Andrew Morris, University of Manchester
Wellcome Connecting Science Team
- Michelle Bishop, Associate Director of Learning and Training at Wellcome Connecting Science
- Vaishnavi Vikas Gangadhar, Informatics Technical Officer
The course data are free to reuse and adapt with appropriate attribution. All course data in these repositories are licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Each course landing page is assigned a DOI via Zenodo, providing a stable and citable reference. These DOIs can be found on the respective course landing pages and can be included in CVs or research publications, offering a professional record of the course contributions.
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