Harvard University and the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are teaming up with six African universities in an effort to boost genetic research capabilities in Africa. The goal is to help close the gap in mental health among populations that have been excluded from genetic research in the field.
The Global Initiative for Neuropsychiatric Genetics Education in Research Project (GINGER) has recruited 17 African scholars who will attend workshops in the United States and London over the next two years on epidemiology, bioinformatics, genetics, and grant writing. They will be assigned mentors who will communicate with them online when they return to Africa. The trainees will in turn train other scholars at their home universities in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
Michelle Williams, dean of the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University, stated that “great science and great discoveries come from people who work together
