Incorporating bioinformatics into biological science education in Nigeria: Prospects and challenges

Ojo, Opeolu O.; Omabe, M.

doi:10.1016/j.meegid.2010.11.015

Cited by 12 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Due to the need to introduce bioinformatics to more universities in Nigeria [43], at a recent event of Bioinformatics Curriculum Development Workshop held at the University of Ibadan July 22–25, 2013, Nigerian Bioinformatics Research and Education Network (NBREN) was formed to further strengthen efforts towards bioinformatics development and research in Nigeria. Specific aims of the network include to:…”

Section: Nigerian Bioinformatics Research and Education Network (Nbren)mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Computational Biology and Bioinformatics in Nigeria

et al. 2014

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Over the past few decades, major advances in the field of molecular biology, coupled with advances in genomic technologies, have led to an explosive growth in the biological data generated by the scientific community. The critical need to process and analyze such a deluge of data and turn it into useful knowledge has caused bioinformatics to gain prominence and importance. Bioinformatics is an interdisciplinary research area that applies techniques, methodologies, and tools in computer and information science to solve biological problems. In Nigeria, bioinformatics has recently played a vital role in the advancement of biological sciences. As a developing country, the importance of bioinformatics is rapidly gaining acceptance, and bioinformatics groups comprised of biologists, computer scientists, and computer engineers are being constituted at Nigerian universities and research institutes. In this article, we present an overview of bioinformatics education and research in Nigeria. We also discuss professional societies and academic and research institutions that play central roles in advancing the discipline in Nigeria. Finally, we propose strategies that can bolster bioinformatics education and support from policy makers in Nigeria, with potential positive implications for other developing countries.

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Section: Nigerian Bioinformatics Research and Education Network (Nbren)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Challenges facing the introduction and the development of bioinformatics in Nigeria have been reviewed in earlier publications [2],[43]. Among other challenges, it has been highlighted that bioinformatics research in Nigeria urgently needs adequate funding from both private and public sectors.…”

Section: Challenges Of Bioinformatics In Nigeriamentioning

confidence: 99%

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics in Nigeria

et al. 2014

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“…The development of bioinformatics as a discipline has provided biological scientists with many important insights into the functioning and composition of biological systems [ 1 – 3 ]. Together with tools and methods developed within bioinformatics, these insights provide essential foundations for basic and applied research in current biomedical science, health care, and agriculture [ 3 – 8 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These numbers are expected to increase because of ongoing attempts to sequence genomes of different populations and organisms worldwide; an example is the 100,000 Genomes Project, which is aimed at sequencing 100,000 whole human genomes in England to better understand the link between rare variants and disease ( http://www.genomicsengland.co.uk ). Although these large volumes of information are valuable resources for the scientific community, the extremely rapid growth in database size also brings difficulties in analysing and deriving inferences from such data [ 1 , 4 , 11 , 12 ]. Computational research has become essential in the postgenomic era to help organise and store bioinformatics data, ensuring their retrieval and allowing further processing and analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bioinformatics in Africa: The Rise of Ghana?

Karikari¹

2015

PLoS Comput Biol

104

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Until recently, bioinformatics, an important discipline in the biological sciences, was largely limited to countries with advanced scientific resources. Nonetheless, several developing countries have lately been making progress in bioinformatics training and applications. In Africa, leading countries in the discipline include South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya. However, one country that is less known when it comes to bioinformatics is Ghana. Here, I provide a first description of the development of bioinformatics activities in Ghana and how these activities contribute to the overall development of the discipline in Africa. Over the past decade, scientists in Ghana have been involved in publications incorporating bioinformatics analyses, aimed at addressing research questions in biomedical science and agriculture. Scarce research funding and inadequate training opportunities are some of the challenges that need to be addressed for Ghanaian scientists to continue developing their expertise in bioinformatics.

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“…Restricted access to vital resources, scientific information and infrastructures, in the field of computational biology and bioinformatics, is one of the challenges facing aspiring scholars in some developing countries [1–3]. In the African continent, students and researchers who live in some rural communities are often confronted with inaccessibility to electricity and quality internet usage for research and personal study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MACBenAbim: A Multi-platform Mobile Application for searching keyterms in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

Oluwagbemi¹,

Adewumi²,

Esuruoso³

2012

Bioinformation

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Computational biology and bioinformatics are gradually gaining grounds in Africa and other developing nations of the world. However, in these countries, some of the challenges of computational biology and bioinformatics education are inadequate infrastructures, and lack of readily-available complementary and motivational tools to support learning as well as research. This has lowered the morale of many promising undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers from aspiring to undertake future study in these fields. In this paper, we developed and described MACBenAbim (Multi-platform Mobile Application for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics), a flexible user-friendly tool to search for, define and describe the meanings of keyterms in computational biology and bioinformatics, thus expanding the frontiers of knowledge of the users. This tool also has the capability of achieving visualization of results on a mobile multi-platform context.AvailabilityMACBenAbim is available from the authors for non-commercial purposes.

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Incorporating bioinformatics into biological science education in Nigeria: Prospects and challenges

Cited by 12 publications

References 24 publications

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics in Nigeria

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics in Nigeria

Bioinformatics in Africa: The Rise of Ghana?

MACBenAbim: A Multi-platform Mobile Application for searching keyterms in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics

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