Research governance and support services
Created with the aim of better coordinating activities between its different components (clinical trial support, data management and statistics, research development, project management and library) and thus providing support to investigators to carry out clinical research at the highest possible standards. Research development and project management provides support for negotiating and managing research projects and it’s entirely supported by competitive funds.
Laboratory services
The overarching mission of the department is to provide reliable and efficient laboratory service to support innovative and cutting-edge research on the Units thematic programmes and to serve as a centre of excellence for training in laboratory science within the sub-region. It comprises of the Research Platform Labs (RPL), Clinical lab, the TB, Malaria and Microbiology labs, as well as field station labs in Basse and Keneba. Biological sample storage, archiving and retrieval are handled by the Biobank and the Biomedical Engineering unit undertakes equipment maintenance, calibration, repairs, and procurement functions. The RPL, comprising Serology, Immunology and Molecular Diagnostics, provide a shared infrastructure for the conduct of laboratory research. The RPL has become fully functional, providing a core-set of assays as well as capacity to optimise and develop new ones. The serology, Clinical and TB labs have successfully achieved full GCLP accreditation and the more stringent ISO 15189 accreditation standards. Activities supported in the various laboratories span from basic research in immunology, microbiology, virology and molecular biology to large epidemiological studies and intervention trials as well as routine clinical diagnosis. Available tests to support these areas range from basic microscopy and microbiology to digital PCR and next generation sequencing. The laboratory service has about 67 platform staff members and about 200 users of the facility.