UT Health San Antonio leads bioinformatics program for African scientists studying neurodegenerative diseases

Posted on: Thursday, January 23rd, 2025

A collaboration between UT Health San Antonio and African biomedical leaders, called the The AI-BOND program, aims to address the growing need for bioinformatics education in Africa to tackle the increasing cases of Alzheimer’s and related dementias. The program provides African researchers with essential skills in gathering, analyzing, and interpreting biological data for neurodegenerative disease research.

Ongoing discussions over several years with scientists from around the globe highlighted the need to empower scientists from countries with smaller economies to develop and execute their own studies, said Sudha Seshadri, MD, DM, Robert R. Barker Distinguished University Professor of neurology and founding director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. She said creating the capacity to expand research in low- and middle-income countries boosts scientific gains not only for these countries, but also for the entire world.

Sudha Seshadri, MD

“No one type of human has a monopoly on creativity or intelligence, so we need to harness the energy and ideas of people all over the globe. To do that you need to build the infrastructure for people in lower- and middle-income countries to complete their own investigations,” Seshadri said, “There is a disproportionate amount of the science that is being done in countries with larger economies. We are missing out on the opportunity to learn from three-fourths of humanity.”

Learn more at the UT Health San Antonio Newsroom.

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