AfSHG News

For comments about this web site, email: webmaster@afshg.org

Last updated:

August 05, 2008


	African Society of Human Genetics



	August 05, 2008 The next AfSHG conference will take place from March 13-15, 2009 in Yaounde, Cameroon. The theme for the conference is “Human Origins, Genetic Diversity and Health”. The sub-themes are: "Human Origins and Genetic Diversity", "Chronic Diseases", "Medical Genetics", "Pharmacogenomics" and "Ethnicity, Appearance, Culture and Genetics". The meeting will be held in conjunction with the Cameroon Genetics Society. More information about the conference program, scientific sessions, abstract submission and travel will become available soon. November 29, 2007 The photo albums from our most recent meeting in Cairo have now been posted. The photos are organized into two albums. Feel free to look around and download any photos you are interested in. The download button is at the lower right corner of each photo page. The book of abstracts is also here (note: it is large - ~3.6 MB - and may take a while to open/download). This will be particularly useful for those who could not attend. Those who attended already have hard copies but may also want to have the electronic copy for convenience and easy reference. Have fun ! November 26, 2007 Our most recent meeting, the 5th Annual Meeting of the African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG), was held November 2 - 5, 2007 in conjunction with the First Annual Meeting of the Division of Human Genetics and Genome Research and the National Society of Human Genetics of Egypt. The conference theme was: Genomics Research in Africa: Implications for Disease Diagnosis, Treatment and Drug Development. You can read about the many exciting sessions in the detailed conference program. The Conference venue was the National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt. For members, please check out the notes of the annual general meeting held during the conference. Thanks to all for an exciting and productive meeting ! October 19, 2007 MEET AND ASSIST SERVICE AT CAIRO AIRPORT Please send your arrival details [time and date, airline, flight number] to yehiagad@gmail.com and emanabulezz@yahoo.com. There will be a 'meet and assist service' at the airport for the meeting delegates. You will be met in the arrival hall outside the area of immigration and customs by staff of the Cairo Airport shuttle service carrying a sign of the conference and your name. They will take you to the hotel. THIS SERVICE HAS BEEN ALREADY PAID FOR, SO YOU ARE NOT REQUESTED TO PAY CHARGES. In case of sudden change of flight plans and different arrival times and/or venues, and in case you did not meet the Cairo airport shuttle service staff, please proceed to the Cairo airport shuttle service office that is present in your arrival hall and tell them that you are affiliated with the 5th meeting of the African Society of Human Genetics and they will arrange your trip to the hotel. In case of emergency please call Professor Yehia Zakaria Gad at 0101 4343 77. Regarding your departure trip, you are kindly requested to arrange your own transport means to the airport. TRAVEL SUPPORT The decision on who will receive sponsorship for the AfSHG 2007 Cairo meeting has now been made by the committee. There have been many requests and thus only a limited number of individuals could be funded. If you have requested support but have not received any notice as yet, then unfortunately on this occasion we are unable to provide financial assistance. However, we hope that you would still be able to raise funds from elsewhere to attend the meeting. October 02, 2007 Letters of invitation If you are attending the conference and you need an official letter of invitation to the AfSHG 2007 meeting for visa or travel grant application purposes, please email Prof. Abdoul-Ezz at emanabulezz@yahoo.com as soon as possible. Include in your email the following pieces of information: full name, affiliation and full institutional address, nationality, passport number, phone number and email address. Airport assistance Regarding airport assistance, arrangements have been made by the LOC for meeting assistance for everybody at the airport on their arrival. Please provide as soon as possible your arrival info [flight no, airline, time, date, email address] to emanabulezz@yahoo.com. Title your email "Request for airport assistance". Hotel information If you have not yet made arrangements for accomodation, please remember we have negotiated special rates at several hotels. If you want to take advantage of this, please check out the hotel information page. October 01, 2007 Instructions for poster presentations - The dimensions of the poster should not exceed 100cm width x 110cm length. - The presenting researcher should be underlined in the list of authors and contact email address should be given on the poster. - The presenters are kindly asked to put posters early on the first day of the meeting. - Presenters may want to consider to bring A4 copies of their poster as handout for other meeting participants. September 18, 2007 Please note that abstract submission is now closed. Authors will be notified about the acceptance of their abstracts on or shortly after September 22, 2007. July 30, 2007 More information about hotel accomodation is now available Updated information about hotel accomodation is now available. Do check the page for more hotel options. A downloadable version is available as well. Useful information (e.g. currency, weather, travel links) about the conference site may be found here. As usual, we have provided a downloadable conference announcement here to email or print for your colleagues and friends. Please, check out the conference information and registration pages. To submit abstracts, please follow the instructions about preparation and submission of abstracts. June 25, 2007 More information on Cairo 2007 available We now have more information about the AfSHG 2007 meeting in Cairo, Egypt, available. Please check out the registration page as well as the abstract submission page. For the first time, the society will be offering a prize for young investigators at the Cairo conference. The AfSHG prize will be awarded at each annual AfSHG meeting for the first, second and third best oral or poster presentation given by a young scientist attending and presenting their own work. To be eligible for the AfSHG Prize competition, participants should have received, within the last three years, a university degree (Masters’ or PhD) in Biological, Medical, Pharmaceutical or Social/Behavioral Sciences and work in the field of genetics relating to African populations. More information about the prize is available here. Important dates: Registration begins: June 25, 2007 Registration closes: October 05, 2007 [Note: You can always register on site; this closing date applies to registering prior to the conference] Abstract submission begins: June 25, 2007 Abstract submission closes: August 25, 2007 Notification about acceptance of abstract: September 15, 2007 Information about hotel accomodation is also available. March 27, 2007 Announcing the First All Africa Conference on Heart Disease, Diabetes, and Stroke 2007 The PAN AFRICAN SOCIETY OF CARDIOLOGY and the KENYA CARDIAC SOCIETY are convening the first multidisciplinary conference on heart disease, diabetes, and stroke in Africa in Nairobi, Kenya on 13-16 May, 2007. This multi-disciplinary and pan-African conference is a response to the emerging epidemic of cardiovascular and metabolic disease in Africa that promises to be more serious than the scourge of HIV/AIDS if appropriate preventive and therapeutic interventions are not implemented soon. The conference programme consists of 7 Scientific Sessions dealing with the Hypertension, Cardiac Surgery, Prevention and Management of Rheumatic Valvular Heart Disease and Cardiac Infections, Paediatric Cardiology, Heart Failure, Diabetes, and Stroke. The international faculty of speakers includes Edward Kaplan (USA), Shanthi Mendis (WHO, Geneva), George Mensah (USA), Lionel Opie (S Africa), Yackoub Seedat (S Africa), Shaboodien Rahimtoola (USA), and Salim Yusuf (Canada). The meeting will be preceded by several satellite events. For further information, please check PASCAR's web site at : http://www.pascar.co.za January 05, 2007 The 5th Annual Meeting of The African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG) will be held November 3 - 5, 2007 in conjunction with The First Annual Meeting of The Division of Human Genetics and Genome Research and The National Society of Human Genetics of Egypt. The conference theme is: Genomics Research in Africa: Implications for Disease Diagnosis, Treatment and Drug Development. The Conference venue is the National Research Center, Cairo, Egypt. With this meeting, the society would have held meetings in West Africa (2003), South Africa (2005), East Africa (2006) and now North Africa (2007). Save the dates and tell your friends and colleagues. A printable conference announcement is available here. You may print it to share with colleagues and friends. Further information about the conference can be found on the 2007 conference page. November 09, 2006 Photo albums have been created for all past general conferences (note: the 2004 meeting was a closed meeting). They can be found here below and are linked to several pages on this web site. Photo albums of conferences: 2003 Conference Photo Album 2005 Conference Photo Album 2006 Conference Photo Album November 06, 2006 Some pictures (over 150 of them!) from the 4th Annual Conference have been posted on this web site. Check them out here. Note that the conference report (already sent to the mailing list) is also available here. October 27, 2006 The African Society of Human Genetics has been accepted as the 7^th Full Member society of the International Federation of Human Genetics Societies (http://www.ifhgs.org). The International Federation of Human Genetics Societies was founded in 1996 to provide a forum for organized groups dedicated to all aspects of human genetics, including research, clinical practice, and professional and lay education. Thanks to Professor Raj Ramesar for the work he put in to get this done. October 02, 2006 The 2006 meeting - the 4th Annual Conference - was successfully held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, between June 3-5, 2006, in conjunction with the 42nd Annual Conference of the Ethiopian Medical Association (EMA). The theme of the conference was "Human Genetic Variation and Disease". Keynote speakers include Kari Stefansson, deCODE Genetics; Sir Walter Bodmer, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford; and; David Bentley, Solexa, Inc. The conference was attended by over 120 participants from 16 countries. The society welcomed for the first time participants from the North African region. The conference venue, the International Livestock Research Institute campus, provided a beautiful setting for the meeting and participants renewed acquaintances, made new friends and established new collaborations. Participants enjoyed a wealth of keynote presentations, invited talks, oral abstracts and poster presentations. Tutorial sessions were held on “Mapping Complex Traits” (led by Joseph Beyene, Scott Wiiliams and Nicole Walley) and “Using HapMap Data” (led by Adebowale Adeyemo, David Bentley and Charles Rotimi). The quality of presentations was high and the discussion lively. As part of the conference, participants visited the National Museum at which one of the highlights was viewing the bones of the famous “Lucy” (Australopithecus afarensis) and other early hominids. The National Ethnographic Museum, located at the old imperial palace of the late Emperor Haile Selassie, was also visited. The society dinner was held on June 3^rd and participants enjoyed a lively performance by a traditional Ethiopian dance group. The next conference will hold in Cairo, Egypt in 2007, inconjunction with the first annual meeting of the National Society of Genetics in Egypt May 19, 2006 The "final" conference program is now ready. Please check it out here. If you plan to stay at the conference center (ILRI), please send an email to Ms. Shirley Freeman (sfreeman2@howard.edu) to let her know your arrival and departure dates and times. This will facilitate the ground transportation arrangements in Addis Ababa. March 01, 2006 Hotel information is available here. We currently have information on the ILRI ( the conference site), Imperial Hotel, Axum Hotel, Hilton Hotel, Ararat Hotel and Sheration Hotel. For further information, you may contact Ms. Shirley Freeman (sfreeman2@howard.edu) or the hotels directly. Remember the following important dates: Registration began: February 15, 2006 Registration closes: May 01, 2006 [Note: You can always register on site; this closing date applies to registering prior to the conference] Abstract submission began: February 15, 2006 Abstract submission closes: April 15, 2006 Notification about acceptance of abstract: May 01, 2006 February 15, 2006 Registration for the 2006 Meeting is now open. The 2006 conference registration fee is US $50 for individuals from developing countries and US$ 100 for those from Europe or North America. To register, go to the online registration form and fill in your details. Payment can be made in either of two ways: (1) By a check drawn on a US bank and mailed to: African Society of Human Genetics, Attention: Shirley Freeman, National Human Genome Center, 2041 Georgia Avenue NW, Suite 615, Washington, DC 20060, USA. (2) On site at the conference. Please, if you cannot send a check drawn on a US bank, do not send other forms of payment as they cannot be cashed by the society at the present time. Just wait to pay onsite at the conference. Abstract submission is now open. Remember to check the instructions for authors before submitting your abstract. A downloadable set of instructions and a sample abstract are also available to assist in preparing abstracts. The best way to submit an abstract is to use the online abstract submission form. If you cannot use this form for any reason, please email Dr. Melanie Newport (m.j.newport@bsms.ac.uk) or Jayne Wellington (J.Wellington@bsms.ac.uk). Information about the conference, including: registration, program and abstract submission may be found on the Conference page. To download a conference flyer, please click here. You may wish to check out the provisional program. It promises to be a rich and exciting time! February 06, 2006 The 2006 Meeting will now hold June 3-5, 2006. The theme of the meeting is Human Genetic Variation and Disease. The conference venue is the International Livestock Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The meeting will hold in conjunction with the 42nd Annual Conference of the Ethiopian Medical Association. Information about the conference, including: registration, program and abstract submission may be found on the Conference page. Members of the conference commitees have been working hard to set up everything just right. To download a conference flyer, please click here. Feel free to distribute this flyer to colleagues, students and other interested people. You may wish to check out the provisional program. It promises to be a rich and exciting time! September 26, 2005 The 2006 meeting will now hold June 3-4, 2006, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Please bookmark these dates. April 11, 2005 The 2005 joint meeting with the Southern African Society of Human Genetics was successfully held between March 13-17, 2005. The congress was well-attended and invited speakers included: Myles Axton (Editor, Nature Genetics), David Bentley (Head of Human Genetics, the Sanger Institute), Sir Walter Bodmer (Head, CRUK Cancer and Immunogenetics Lab, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford), Christina Chambers (Program Director, California Teratogen Information Service and Clinical Research Program), Sinuhe Hahn (Director, Laboratory of Prental Medicine, Women's Hospital, Basel), Tim Hubbard (Head of Human Genome Analysis, the Sanger Institute), Kenneth Jones (Professor of Pediatrics, UCSD School of Medicine & Director of Genetics and Dysmorphology, Kaiser Permanente) and Danilo Moretti-Ferreira (Professor of Genetics, Botucatu Medical School of Sao Paulo State University and Chairman of Genetic Counselling Services). During the meeting, there was an excursion to Sterkfontein caves and a talk on the excavations at the caves given by Professor Ron Clarke from the Sterkfontein Research Unit at the Department of Anatomical Science, University of Wittwaterstrand. The AfSHG held its 2005 General Meeting on the 14th and 15th March. We welcomed several new members at these meetings. The summary of the deliberations at the meetings has since been circulated to members. Notable outcomes of the meeting include: 1. A decision to hold the next meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in May 2006. The meeting is likely to be during the last week of May. Do bookmark the dates. 2. Nomination of committees (an Organizing Committee and a Program Committee), to handle the planning for the conference. 3. Appointment of a Managing Editor - Roland Ikheloa - for our journal. He is already working with several other members of the society to get the journal started. 4. Several suggestions on how to proceed to establish the society on a firmer footing. February 10, 2005 The deadline for early registration for the 2005 Joint Congress of the Southern Africa Society of Human Genetics and African Society of Human Genetics has been extended by one week - from February 11 to February 18, 2005. Register early to take advantage of the cost savings offered by the early registration rates. Again, the last day for early registration is Friday February 18, 2005. February 10, 2005 You can now pay for the 2005 meeting by credit card. To do that, print out the credit card authorization form, fill it and fax it to Conferplan Incorporated at 0027(11) 794 4263 with your registration forms. This should prove more convenient to many people planning to attend. February 01, 2005 The web site has been updated with information about the 2005 meeting . Apologies for the lateness in updating the web site. Most of the discussion and information about the meeting had been communicated through our mailing list. Do check out the conference pages and inform your friends and colleagues. 30 January 2004 The web site has been updated with material from the 2003 meeting. If you want to see some of the presentations or the photos, head for the 2003 Meeting section. There is also a forum at http://www.afshg.org/forum/ and by now, you should have received your first message from the listserv. 29 January 2004 The society is listed on the World Health Organisation's Genome Resources Center web site. Check the page here. The site also has a listing of many other societies and organizations active in genetics, genomics, bioinformatics and related fields.. 08-10 Decebmber, 2003 The 2003 Meeting of the society held in Accra, Ghana. There were two days of presentations and discussion, followed by a day touring Elmina Castle. For further information about the meeting, do check the 2003 Meeting page. Support for the meeting was provided by the National Institutes of Health: 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, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. You can see a copy of the actual printed program used during the meeting here (pages 1 and 4, pages 2 and 3). 01 December 2003 A poster announcing the opening ceremony of the 2003 meeting can be found here. 27 November 2003 A tour of Elmina Castle has been arranged for December 10, 2003. The time will be 10.00 am to 4.00 pm. 26 November, 2003 Updated program for the 2003 AfSHG posted. Check it out here. 04 November, 2003 Updated program for the 2003 AfSHG posted. Check it out here. 28 October, 2003 This is to remind everyone planning to attend the 2003 AfSHG conference to make their travel arrangements as soon as possible to avoid last-minute difficulties. As the month of December approaches, it becomes more difficult and more expensive to get one's choice of flights. Therefore, make your reservations as quickly as possible. 27 October, 2003 There is updated information regarding hotel accomodation for the 2003 meeting. We have successfully negotiated a special room rate for the conference. Conference participants who plan to stay at the conference venue, La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, will now pay $100 per night for a single room and $120 per night for a double room. An updated registration form can be downloaded here . 14 October, 2003 The ISHIB 2003 meeting has been cancelled [you can read more at www.ishib.org ]. This is relevant to the Society because the ISHIB meeting and the AfSHG 2003 inaugural meeting were to have run concurrently. Nonetheless, the AfSHG 2003 meeting will hold as scheduled on December 8-9, 2003 .


	[Home] [News] [Objectives] [Membership] [Committees] [Meetings] [Contact] [Links & Resources] [About AfSHG]