Cooperating countries: Burkina Faso and Austria

Coordinating institution: Medical University, Vienna (MEDUNI)

Project coordinator: Julia Walochnik

Partner institution: Institut de Recherche en sciences de la Santé-Direction Régionale de l’Ouest, Burkina Faso

Project duration: 01.05.2024 - 30.04.2027

Effective prevention and treatment of diseases in developing countries like Burkina Faso require reliable and efficient laboratories for diagnostics. However, studies have shown that most health research capacity strengthening interventions have focused on individual skills or institutional systems, ignoring wider national and international structures essential for establishing sustainable capacity monitoring and assessment. Therefore, developing a collaboration targeting molecular genomics capacity building between the Institute for Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine of Vienna and the Institut de Recherche en sciences de la Santé, Bobo Dioulasso, will contribute to establishing sustainable cooperation on essential diagnostics and genotyping issues for important endemic diseases of Burkina Faso such as malaria, lymphatic filariasis, and onchocerciasis.

SUSTAIN-Diagnostics contributes to the KoEF program's overall objectives by elaborating research exchange between institutions, and using molecular genomics techniques to contribute to disease management and impact the health and well-being of the population in Burkina Faso. The project will enroll researchers and students from both institutions who will collaborate to establish a sustainable foundation for using molecular genomics for tropical disease diagnostics and control. This international institutional collaboration will establish sustainable research efforts on diagnostic techniques, which could expand to cover other critical diseases of the country and also contribute to validating diagnostic assays for diseases emerging in non-endemic countries due to globalization.