KRISP Talks by Dr Veron Ramsuran, Senior Lecturer: College of Health Sciences, UKZN, 27 January 2017, K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, South Africa

The concept behind this newsletter is that anyone with 15 minutes to spare can learn about our research work. In this December 2016 issue of our newsletter, we have included interesting news, blogs, reports, tweets, publications and training information produced by our group.

This is a half-day interactive workshop, which seeks to explore and deliberate on key ethical issues associated with HIV phylogenetic analysis as applied in our understanding of HIV transmission dynamics, particularly in African settings. Keynote presentations will be followed by plenary discussions led by the speakers.

In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, John Gregson and colleagues report the results of a meta-analysis investigating HIV-1 drug resistance in 20 studies from sub-Saharan Africa.

Two of our recently published manuscripts (de Oliveira et al. Lancet HIV 2016 & Gregson et al Lancet Infectious Diseases 2016) are highlighed in the Lancet website front webpage...

By Professor Ayesha Kharsany, December 1, 2016, Durban - Globally, over 1.6 billion people are in the age group 12-24 years, the largest generation of adolescents and young people. However, almost 42% of new HIV infections occur in this age group, nearly 80% of these live in sub-Saharan Africa and more than 70% of these infections occur in adolescent girls and young women. Not only do these adolescent girls and young women have higher rates of HIV, they also acquire infection 5-7 years earlier than their male peers.

More than 18 million people now have access to life-saving AIDS treatment, 1.2 million more than at the end of last year, the United Nations said on Monday. With detailed data showing some of the many complexities of the HIV epidemic, the report found that people are particularly vulnerable to HIV at certain points in their lives (de Oliveira et al. Lancet HIV 2016). It called for 'life-cycle; approach to offer help and prevention measures for everyone at every stage of life.

In this report, UNAIDS is announcing that 18.2 million people now have access to HIV treatment. The Fast-Track response is working. Increasing treatment coverage is reducing AIDS-related deaths among adults and children. But the life-cycle approach, which highlight our phylogenetics manuscript (de Oliveira et al. Lancet HIV 2016), has to include more than just treatment.

This AWACC annual workshop is in the 10th edition and it is organized as a joint effort of the Centre for AIDS research (CFAR) of Harvard Medical School, SATuRN, CAPRISA, UKZN and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health. AWACC objecitve is to translate the latest evidence-based research and apply best practice models of care into good clinical practice, specifically for resource constrained areas.

The concept behind this newsletter is that anyone with 15 minutes to spare can learn about the work of SATuRN. In this third 2016 issue of our newsletter we have included interesting news, blogs, reports, tweets, publications and training information produced by our network. We hope you enjoy it and find it informative. We welcome any feedback about content or format.

The biennial SASBi and SAGS congresses are the premier national scientific meetings on bioinformatics and genetics in South Africa. In total, 187 participats delivered 40 oral presentations and 65 posters in SASBi-SAGS-2016. This congress provided an exciting opportunity to learn about cutting-edge research in both disciplines, and to network with members of the two societies and with leading international scientists.

The Professional Development Programme (PDP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) at CAPRISA aims to develop and retain South African scientists and professionals of the highest calibre.

The Professional Development Programme (PDP) at CAPRISA aims to develop and retain South African scientists and professionals of the highest calibre. The genomics and bioinformatics project in HIV-1 phylogenetics and molecular epidemiology is inter-disciplinary in nature and involves collaboration between the CAPRISA's MRC HIV-TB Pathogenesis and Treatment Research Unit and the Flagship Program of the MRC, which are two of the most prestigious research programs in South Africa.

The Professional Development Programme (PDP) at CAPRISA aims to develop and retain South African scientists and professionals of the highest calibre. The genomics and bioinformatics project in HIV-1 drug resistance is inter-disciplinary in nature and involves collaboration between the CAPRISA's MRC HIV-TB Pathogenesis and Treatment Research Unit and the Flagship Program of the MRC, which are two of the most prestigious research programs in South Africa.

Nature (Vol. 535, pp. 335, 2016) report our recent results on the use of genetic sequences to uncover HIV-1 transmission patterns in young woman in South Africa (de Oliveira et al. Lancet HIV 2016). The paper was presented as a Keynote at AIDS 2016 conference.

Researchers with the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa, or CAPRISA, a consortium of South African and North American scientists, analyzed genetic codes (de Oliveira et al. Lancet HIV 2016) from study subjects in South Africa to try to pinpoint biological factors that may contribute, along with behavioral factors, to the large number of infections.

Science magazine (Vol. 353, Issue 6294, pp. 18-21, 2016). This issue was published before the AIDS conference in Durban 2016 and highlights some of our research, including our treatment as prevention trial (TasP) as well our phylogenetic analysis (de Oliveira et al. Lancet HIV 2016).

Megan Druce and Sthembiso Msweli are two very bright South Africans who have successfully completed their MSc as part of the UKZN Flagship program at the MRC. They both wrote inspiring blogs, the first is about a Cum Laude degree which allowed the award of a scholarship for a PhD in Germany, the second is about the history of a laboratory technologist from rural KZN, who after graduating was promoted to laboratory manager...

The concept behind this newsletter is that anyone with 15 minutes to spare can learn about the work of SATuRN. In this first 2016 issue of our newsletter we have included interesting news, blogs, reports, tweets, publications and training information produced by our network. We hope you enjoy it and find it informative. We welcome any feedback about content or format.

The 21st International Workshop on Virus Evolution and Molecular Epidemiology (VEME2016) will be hosted by the Korea University College of Medicine, 14-19 August, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Abstract deadline: 15 March 2016

KRISP Talks by Dr David Rasmussen, Postdoc Research Fellow, ETH Zurich, 11 March 2016, K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, South Africa

KRISP Talks by Oliver Ratmann, Research Fellow, Department Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College of London & UKZN MRC Research Fellow, 06 February 2016, K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, South Africa

The SATuRN 10th Southern African HIV & TB Drug Resistance and Treatment Monitoring Workshop will be run together with the Annual Workshop on Advanced Clinical Care - AIDS (AWACC) - Durban, South Africa, 19 to 20 November 2015

Africa Centre through its European Commission Virogenesis Project & MRC Flagship Programmer wish to recruit a 1) Software Developer & 2) Bioinformatics Scientific Manager.

We cordially invites you to a seminar presented by Prof Thumbi Ndungu from K-RITH and HPP/UKZN, 21 August 2015, K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, South Africa

Introduction: This is an excellent opportunity for outstanding and motivated individuals to access one of the most comprehensive population-based HIV surveillance and genomics datasets in the world at the Wellcome Trust Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies based in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

The Wellcome Trust Africa Centre Genomics & Bioinformatics Programme & UKZN MRC Flagship project cordially invites you to a seminar presented by Prof. Oliver Laeyendecker Assistant Professor of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University,19 June 2015, K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, South Africa

The Wellcome Trust Africa Centre Genomics & Bioinformatics Programme & UKZN MRC Flagship project cordially invites you to a seminar presented by Dr Nigel Garrett from CAPRISA, 19 June 2015, K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, Durban, South Africa

By John Cohen, Science, 12 June 2015. New studies could aid public health efforts. Last week at the New York Academy of Sciences in New York City, researchers, public health specialists, and HIV/AIDS advocates discussed how to exploit the potential of the technique, called phylogenetic analysis - and the thorny ethical and legal issues it raises...

Phylogenetic research 'the analysis of molecular sequencing data to study evolutionary relationships among groups and organisms' needs to be scaled up to end the AIDS epidemic, according to the participants at a symposium held on 4 June at the New York Academy of Sciences called HIV 2015: Using Phylogenetics to Enhance the HIV Response.