As part of strengthening the collaboration links between the partners of the DELGEME program, Professor Alan Christoffels, Director of the National Institute of Bioinformatics in South Africa, visited DELGEME offices in Bamako from 19 to 22 April 2017.

He was welcomed by Professor Abdoulaye Djimdé,

Professor Djibril Sangaré, STAF and DELGEME fellows and students. Professor Alan Christoffels was responding to an invitation from

DELGEME Director during his recent visit to South Africa.

After a brief presentation of the program and a meeting with the staff of DELGEME, our guest visited the project premises and the Malaria Research Training center (MRTC).

The courtesy visit to the Embassy of South Africa in Bamako was followed by those of the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacy and to the Director of SEREFO (a Training and research facility on HIV and Tuberculosis).

He also visited the African Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics (ACE) at Faculty of Sciences and Techniques. In addition to meetings with the DELGEME leadership Prof. Christoffels met separately with students. He gave a seminar on bioinformatics to the MRTC Staff. This courtesy visit constitutes the concretization and strengthening of the collaboration between SANBI and DELGEME. The sharing of experiences which happened during meetings between scientists of the two institutions allowed DELGEME program to benefit from a high level of external expertise.