New bio-lab to link African scientists with the world

A multi-million dollar laboratory expected to boost research and put Africa at par with the world’s most advanced research institutions has opened its doors to African researchers.

The laboratory — hosted under the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA) hub — is based at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi. It is the first of its kind in the region offering training, research and related services.

Read more (The East African)

 

Africa to benefit from high-calibre labs

African scientists and students now have access to world-class laboratory facilities, with the opening of an agricultural biosciences research facility at the International Livestock Research Institute’s (ILRI) campus in Nairobi, Kenya. The laboratory facility meets the standards of the world’s most developed countries, said an ILRI spokesperson, and will enable Africans to “venture into new realms of science without constraints of inadequate laboratories”.

Read more (Daily News – Tanzania)

 

New bioscience research facility to boost innovation

A world-class bioscience research facility that has opened its doors in Nairobi is set to move Africa closer to the developed world in agricultural technology.

The aptly named Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa (BecA) centre at the International Livestock Research Institute hub brings together a critical mass of scientists from Africa and abroad and is a boon to scientists and students in African national research institutes and universities.

The Director, Dr Segenet Kelemu, says the arrival of BecA has consolidated on the African soil, research projects once scattered all over the globe with no or little interaction and co-ordination.

Read more (The Standard – Nairobi, Kenya)

 

Bill Gates: Africa is innovating in financial services, food sciences, health

In the second annual letter he has issued to the public to discuss his and his wife’s philanthropic work through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft founder Bill Gates issued an upbeat assessment on the prospects of overcoming the challenges faced by the world’s poorest people—many in Africa—in the fields of health and agriculture. Gates discussed the letter, released today, and the work of the foundation in an interview with AllAfrica’s Tami Hultman.

In his letter, Gates refers to his visit to the “BECA Laboratory in Nairobi, Kenya, which is headed by a scientist named Segenet Kelemu. Their laboratory is doing state-of-the-art marker-assisted breeding to improve sorghum, cassava, and corn so the crops yield more food and resist pests, drought and diseases. Segenet grew up in Ethiopia, moved away for graduate school and worked in other countries for 25 years. But she chose to come back to Africa in 2007 to help develop a generation of plant scientists working to end Africa’s food insecurity. I was very impressed with the teams she has put together and the work they are doing with plant breeders throughout Africa. For products like sorghum, even when they can tell that a seed has all the right characteristics, they still have to develop varieties that also match local tastes, since unlike corn or wheat in rich countries there isn’t one standard form that everyone prefers.”

Bill Gates Annual Letter

 

Hope is Alive!

“The workshop concluded with visits to local research facilities, including the International Livestock Research Institute’s Biosciences of Eastern and Central Africa (BecA) Hub. Private donors and investors have provided more than $10 million in funding for expansion of the facilities and training. “The BecA Hub showed me the country was actively seeking solutions,” Monteros said. “They have an amazing level of dedication and pride, and I hope to be one of the many scientists who join them in their work.

Read more … (Noble Foundation Magazine page 16 – PDF)