Creating a West African BioResource for Nutritional Genetics and Epigenetics

Abstract

The Nutrition Theme at MRC Unit The Gambia will partner with a broad team of collaborators in Bristol (Bristol University and MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit) to create a new West African BioResource (WABR). The new bioresource will consist of rich nutritional cohorts, databases and the Keneba Biobank constructed over decades of research in the West Kiang area of rural Gambia. These will be made open access to worldwide collaborators to support novel research methods to better understand the complex relationships between diet, nutritional status and infectious and non-communicable diseases. The new methodologies will be strongly based on a genes-in-action (alternatively known as recall-by-genotype) paradigm that allows investigators to research the impact of genetic and epigenetic variants on health with highly efficient studies using small numbers of participants. Based upon the Bristol group's world-leading processes we will conduct a 'clone and adapt' exercise to bring the Gambian bioresource up to the same world standard. This process will be extended to the biobanks at MRCG Fajara and at our West African Global Health Alliance (WAGHA) partner institute IRESSEF in Dakar. We will also prepare a bioresource toolkit that can be accessed by other institutes with cohorts and biobanks in other LMICs.

Technical Summary

Global open access to research is strongly encouraged as a means to maximise the return on investments for investigators, participants in medical research and funders. Based on an extraordinarily rich set of nutritional cohorts, databases and the Keneba Biobank we will team up with researchers in Bristol to 'professionalise and externalise' these resources with a special emphasis on driving new collaborations using our genes-in-action (recall-by-genotype) paradigm that allows highly efficient research on the impact of genetic and epigenetic variants on nutritionally-mediated disease processes. The initial work based around the cohorts led by the Nutrition Theme at MRCG will be extended first to additional biobanks at MRCG Fajara and at IRESSEF Dakar through our the West African Global Health Alliance (WAGHA). We will additionally create a toolbox that can be adapted for uptake by other LMIC institutions.

Planned Impact

Progress in developing next-generation nutritional interventions is still greatly hampered by serious gaps in our understanding of mechanisms underlying complex diet/disease interactions. Progress in this field can be accelerated a) by a greater sharing of cohorts, databases and biobanks internationally in order to bring the best minds to bear on the problems, and b) by developing novel research methods. Creation of the proposed West African BioResource (WABR) will take a major step in this direction by promoting international open access to the unique nutritional resources collected over many decades at MRCG Keneba. These processes will be immediately cloned to MRCG Fajara and IRESSEF Dakar and a transportable toolkit will be offered for uptake by other institutions in LMICs. We anticipate that this process will make an important contribution to accelerating discovery science in the field of nutrition and beyond.

People

ORCID iD

Publications

10 25 50
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Bourassa M (2021) Thiamine deficiency in Gambian women of reproductive age in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

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Ruiz L (2021) Comparison of Two Approaches for the Metataxonomic Analysis of the Human Milk Microbiome. in Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology

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Mohammed NI (2023) Quantifying excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in The Gambia: a time-series analysis of three health and demographic surveillance systems. in International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases

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Muriuki JM (2021) Malaria is a cause of iron deficiency in African children. in Nature medicine

 
Description The award has enhanced our ability to share DNA, sequences and metadata leading to several new outputs and many in the pipeline.
Exploitation Route The whole intention of this award is to externalise our data so as to make better use of it.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology

URL https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/projects/harnessing-dna-methylation-variation-between-populations-to-under-2
 
Description FANUS Council
Geographic Reach Africa 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact FANUS is the overall supervisory body for all African Nutrition Societies
URL https://www.fanus.org/
 
Description IUNS Council
Geographic Reach Multiple continents/international 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact IUNS is the governing body for all National Nutrition Societies and thereby influences governance and outputs
URL https://iuns.org/
 
Description LPS Enhancement
Amount £475,000 (GBP)
Organisation Medical Research Council (MRC) 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 12/2021 
End 03/2022
 
Description ALSPAC 
Organisation University of Bristol
Department Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC)
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We are collaborating with the Bristol ALSPAC team in order to 'clone and adapt' their advanced processes for use in WABR.
Collaborator Contribution The ALSPAC team are advising us on optimising the set up of 'externalising' our West African BioResource to international collaborators.
Impact Work in progress - none yet.
Start Year 2018
 
Description DEEP - Diverse Epigenetic Epidemiology Partnership 
Organisation University of Bristol
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Co-applicants with Drs Hannah Elliott and Josine Min at Bristol and Prof Giriraj Chandak at CCMB Hyderabad
Collaborator Contribution Contribution of conceptual inputs, epigenetic data and bioinformatics.
Impact https://www.deep-epigenetics.org
Start Year 2024
 
Description Epigenetics and telomere length 
Organisation University College London
Department Institute of Child Health
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution We provide the research setting and samples and hypotheses.
Collaborator Contribution Dr Jess Buxton brings expertise and methods training.
Impact None yet.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Genes-in-action iron 
Organisation London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)
Department Health Services Research and Policy
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Provision of field samples and opportunities
Collaborator Contribution Co-supervsion of PhD student
Impact None yet.
Start Year 2016
 
Description Harnessing DNA methylation variation between populations to understand disease discordance across ancestries (MR/X021599/1) 
Organisation University of Bristol
Department MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Provision of samples, data and analysis
Collaborator Contribution Generated grant idea and obtained funding
Impact none yet
Start Year 2023
 
Description KEMRI-Kilifi collaboration 
Organisation Kenyan Institute for Medical Research (KEMRI)
Country Kenya 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution Collaboration by way of pooling data and analysis on iron and genetics.
Collaborator Contribution Publications in progress.
Impact Publications in progress
Start Year 2018
 
Description POMC collaboration 
Organisation Charité - University of Medicine Berlin
Country Germany 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Provision of SoC data to add to analysis and publications
Collaborator Contribution Comparative data and analysis on POMC methylation and obesity
Impact Publications have been listed
Start Year 2016