Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) held its 19th meeting May 30–June 1 in Abuja, Nigeria, bringing to a conclusion a 10-year National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund effort to spur a continent-wide genomic research collaboration.

A joint project of NIH, the Wellcome Trust, and the African Academy of Sciences, H3Africa facilitates the collection of data on African genetic and biological variants previously unrepresented in studies on the hereditary and environmental contributors to human health and disease.

“We are marking a 10-year milestone,” said Jennifer Troyer, Ph.D., H3Africa program director from the Division of Genome Sciences at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI).

Environmental factors in Africa

“During the first five years, they had to establish a genomic infrastructure before environmental health work could begin,” said Kimberly McAllister, Ph.D., health scientist administrator (program director) of the Genes, Environment, and Health Branch.

McAllister, along with Bonnie Joubert, Ph.D., also a health scientist administrator (program director) in the Population Health Branch, enabled the environmental health working group and developed workshops at past H3Africa meetings.

McAllister, left, and Joubert, right, were instrumental in integrating genomics and environmental research in Africa. “The capacity-building and training­ was such an ambitious effort,” said Joubert. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw / NIEHS)

They encourage investigators to take the environment into account when trying to determine disease susceptibility. “There were quite a few population studies where there was potential to add environmental risk factors to their genomic studies,” McAllister said.

“The increased capacity for genomics research in Africa, with leadership from African scientists, has been a huge accomplishment,” Joubert added. “They can now investigate a deeper characterization of disease susceptibility by accounting for the impacts of both environmental and genetic risk factors. There are research paths available now that may not have been available five years ago — definitely not 10 years ago.”

H3Africa biorepositories

One in six people alive today lives in Africa, yet Africans have largely been left out of genomic health-related studies. Today, H3Africa has some 500 members and 445 trainees involved in 51 projects, including research sites in more than 30 African countries. More than 100,000 participants have been recruited for studies.

The H3Africa Biorepository program supports research capacity-building through three regional biorepositories located in Nigeria, Uganda, and South Africa. Currently, the biorepository in Uganda is acquiring equipment and training to run environmental laboratory analyses to measure chemicals in biological and environmental samples — analyses that have historically been conducted in the U.S. or Western European laboratories. This information can be used to determine how environmental exposures affect health.

“All three biorepositories store biological and environmental samples,” Joubert explained. “And as planned from the beginning, researchers outside of H3Africa can now submit requests to utilize these samples to test new hypotheses. In Uganda, the biorepository has expanded current laboratory capacity to run exposure analyses without relying on international partners, a huge advancement that will enable even more African-based and African-led research.”

At the 19^th meeting, working group members visited the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria (IHVN) and toured the H3Africa Biorepository (I-HAB) initiative, directed by Alash’le Abimiku, Ph.D. During the tour, they learned how the biorepository achieves its five aims.

Working group members toured I-HAB. Pictured, left to right: McAllister; Sudha Srinivasan, Ph.D., National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Stacey Chambers, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; and IHVN’s Petronilla Nwadike and Abimiku. (Photo courtesy of Bonnie Joubert / NIEHS)

Sustainability emphasized

A presentation by McAllister and Joubert in Abuja summarized the environmental health working group’s accomplishments, while looking to the future.

Highlights included an overview of the working group’s original goals to increase awareness of environmental health and integrate the environment with genomics research in Africa, enable collaboration and knowledge sharing, and explore funding opportunities.

NIEHS also hosted several webinars focused on environmental health in Africa with guest speakers from around the world. One of the webinars featured information about leveraging the Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource (HHEAR).

“Opportunities are still expanding,” said Joubert. “We are at a pivot point where projects can now include more environmental data in their genomics projects or consider ancillary work focusing on environmental health research. They have a strong foundation from which to build.”

“There was a lot of emphasis on the sustainability of the African scientists and their projects,” McAllister added. “We have worked hard to keep up their momentum and inform them of potential funding opportunities. We are hoping a whole bunch of little seeds have been planted.”

(John Yewell is a contract writer for the NIEHS Office of Communications and Public Liaison.)