Dr. Banks toured the laboratory facilities and the location of a Biotech Incubator which will be developed on the campus. He is penned to become honorary Professor also to provide some lectures on cancer and oncogenic viruses, and other PIs in ICGEB could be available to take part in similar activities depending on the specific needs of the University.

Through an Awareness Workshop given by Dr. Banks, MSc students have been encouraged to consider applying to ICGEB fellowship opportunities. University faculty were keen to apply for support for hosting meetings and courses: topics of interest included bioinformatics, genome editing and disease surveillance, possibly working with other stakeholders in Rwanda in the planning of these events.

On 29 February, the delegation visited the Rwandan Forensic Institute, where work on disease sureveillance and threat detection were discussed, in line with work being done at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), and the Rwandan Food and Drug Authority.

The focus of future development is likely to be in enhancing bioexperimentation facilities, microscopy capabilities, and omics platforms, “essential for making R&D competitive internationally”, states Dr. Banks.