President's Word: Pr. Abdoulaye DJIMDE

Genomics is increasingly becoming a mainstream tool for healthcare in many parts of the World. Genetic profiling of disease, using genetic diagnosis at the patient bedside, taking into account genetic data for drug prescription and/or dosing, using whole genome sequencing and big genetics data for tracking pathogens during an epidemic or pandemic, identifying the origin of an invading or emerging pathogen, pin-pointing the source of a nasty antibiotic resistant bacteria in a Hospital, monitoring the spread of antimicrobial resistant organisms in space and time, are just a few examples of the use of genomics to improve health around the World. Unfortunately, Africa is once more lagging behind in the exploitation in this fantastic new resource and the opportunities that come with it. Pathogens genomic Diversity Network Africa (PDNA) is a group of African scientists mostly specializing in genomics, genetics, molecular biology, bioinformatics or cell biology and working in various African institutions on Bacteria, Fungi, Parasites and Viruses in humans and animals. We are men and women coming from several countries dispersed around the continent. We speak many native African languages but also English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Arab. We believe that in joining our forces and our common intelligence, we can generate, analyze and translate genomics data from the many pathogens we study into knowledge for better health in Africa and beyond. PDNA initially started with a focus on malaria. We have now broadened our scope to other pathogens of humans and animals and formed a new legal entity incorporated in the Republic of Mali. We will be doing state of art research on pathogens genomic, training the next generation of scientists, developing the required infrastructure for Big genetic Data Science, engaging with health policy makers at national, regional and international levels to sharply improve the exploitation of genomics for decision making in Africa.