The
Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) has therefore committed to
develop a critical mass of research scientists to conduct research into
tropical and related diseases that are of national and regional importance.
Current
research activities at the KCCR include malaria, tuberculosis, onchocerciasis,
buruli ulcer and elephantiasis.
“What
we are seeking to do is to keep on finding some answers; so for example on
buruli ulcer, how best can we improve on the treatment?” quizzed Dr. Ellis
Owusu-Dabo, Scientific Director of the KCCR.
Together
with its partners, the KCCR is putting up a cold house to create a
bio-repository of human and biological samples for teaching and research. The project,
to be completed before end of 2015, is funded by the VW Foundation at a cost of
€250,000.
The
building will house freezers and fridges with the state-of-the-art facilities to
help track diseases and populations in answering important research questions.
According
to Dr. Owusu-Dabo, the cold house will operate in accordance with standard
rules and regulations which will be stipulated by the Ethics and Institutional
Board Committees.
“It’s
good to have a repository where samples are kept, research questions are raised
and then the answers sought on the basis of the creation of the bio-repository,”
he noted. “So when we do have for example sputum samples, is there a way that
we can go back and look at community X and say that on the basis of the samples
we do have, community X is likely to be prone to resistance strains of tuberculosis?”
The
research works of the KCCR are largely aligned to the research agenda of Ghana –
the Centre currently working with the Ghana Health Service to conduct the
first-ever drug resistance study for pulmonary tuberculosis in the country.
The
Centre hosts the African Research Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases and also
serves as the research wing of the College of Health Sciences at the Kwame
Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Vice-Chancellor
of the KNUST, Prof. Otoo Ellis is enthused at the establishment of the cold
house facility at the KCCR.
“With
time, you need to continuously upgrade your system; the cold house is one of
the critical things that we need because you need to be able to store your
samples, keep them in a state where you don’t have variations,” he said.
The
University has the core business of teaching, research and service and
entrepreneurship training.
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