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African Society of Human Genetics

Welcome to the African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG) Home Page

The African Society of Human Genetics provides a forum for scientists interested in Human Genetics in Africa to meet, interact, network and collaborate.The Society's aim is to equip the African scientific community and policymakers with the information and practical knowledge they need to contribute to the field of genetics research and to attract global attention to the efforts of African scientists.  A major goal of the society is the organization of a series of annual workshops and meetings in various parts of Africa.

AfSHG is proud to be to be part of H3Africa: The Human Heredity and Health in Africa project. The project is a partnership between The National Institutes of Health, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Wellcome Trust. The initiative will support population-based genetic studies in Africa of common, non-communicable disorders such as heart disease and cancer, as well as communicable diseases such as malaria. The project was formally launched on Tuesday June 22, 2010 at a press conference in London, UK. Watch the full press briefing at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0H8KwmWaAY or read a transcript of the press conference at: http://www.genome.gov/Pages/Newsroom/Webcasts/Transcript-H3-AfricaPressConference.pdf.

The next conference, The 2011 Joint Meeting of the African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG) and Southern African Society of Human Genetics (SASHG) will be held in Cape Town on March 6-9, 2011. The venue will be the International Convention Center, Cape Town, South Africa.

The theme of the meeting will be: Building Capacity for Genomic and Translational Research in Africa. The sub-themes are: The Microbiome and Health;  Translational Research: Pharmacological and Forensic Applications of Genetics;  Networks for Research, Training and Capacity Building;  Data/Benefit Sharing and Biorepositories;  North-South and South-South Collaborations in Genetics Research;  Genomics and Infectious Diseases.

A dedicated website has been set up for the 2011 Joint Meeting at:  http://www.humangenetics2011.org. All conference-specific information and updates will be posted on this website. 

 The last AfSHG conference took place from March 13-15, 2009 in Yaounde, Cameroon. The theme for the conference was “Human Origins, Genetic Diversity and Health” with the sub-themes: "Human Origins and Genetic Diversity", "Chronic Diseases", "Medical Genetics", "Pharmacogenomics" and "Ethnicity, Appearance, Culture and Genetics". The meeting was held in conjunction with the Cameroon Genetics Society. You can find the conference program and book of abstracts here as a pdf document. The minutes of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) is also available.

For those who registered as AfSHG member at the Yaounde meeting, but have not submitted a membership registration form, please do so in order for us to update our membership database and to add you to our mailing list. The form can be found here and also on the membership page. Completed forms should be sent to membership@afshg.org or faxed to ++44 (0)20 79588111 c/o Branwen Hennig.

Support for meetings has been provided by the:

	National Institutes of Health
	John E. Forgarty International Center
	National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities
	National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
	National Human Genome Research Institute
	National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
	Affymetrix
	Illumina, Inc
	Sequenom, Inc
	National Human Genome Center at Howard University
	Jackson State University, Missisipi, USA
	deCODE Genetics
	Applied Biosystems
	Oxford University Press
	Cambridge University Press

Funding for this conference was made possible (in part) by 2 R13 HG003267-04 from the National Human Genome Research Institute. The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention by trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Members, remember to follow new happenings on the News page.  

To read past messages to the mailing list, check out the listserv archives at:  http://afshg.org/pipermail/listserv_afshg.org/

Photos from past conferences can be found here.