Midlands State University’s department of Applied Biosciences and Biotechnology under the Faculty of Science and Technology is hosting an international training workshop on gene annotation in collaboration with the University of Oxford’s European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) from the 4th to the 6th of March 2023 at Gweru Main Campus.
In his welcome remarks, Executive Dean – Faculty of Science and Technology, Dr. Action Nechibvute, indicated that the workshop aims to enhance skills.
“Through sharing knowledge and ideas, our learning will accelerate and break new ground,” he said.
Pro-Vice Chancellor – Academic Affairs and Administration, Professor Mcebisi Maphosa, said that the training workshop dovetails with the University’s internationalisation efforts.
“This workshop is timely given Zimbabwe’s trajectory to improve access and utilisation of advanced knowledge and technologies, which is a key outcome of the National Development Strategy 1 that seeks to make Zimbabwe an upper-middle income economy by 2028,” he noted.
“I am particularly excited that this is a hands-on training, meaning academics are going beyond just understanding the central dogma of molecular biology but answering critical questions about the biological significance of the genome and understanding the biological processes the genome impacts so that we can address various research questions,” Professor Maphosa added.
Ensembl trainer Louisse Mirabueno highlighted that the workshop will help attendants better explore the Ensembl database.
Ensembl is an open access database of over 50,000 genes from humans and plants impacting areas like drug discovery, biochemistry and gene editing.
The training workshop has seen attendance from academics and professionals from universities, research institutes and government departments.