Africa has taken a decisive step toward strengthening its leadership in global genomics with the launch of GEN-IMPACT, a £10 million initiative designed to elevate African-led scientific discovery and reduce the continent’s long-standing underrepresentation in genomic research.
Backed by Wellcome and jointly implemented by the Science for Africa Foundation (SFA Foundation), the African Population Cohorts Consortium (APCC), and the African Bioinformatics Institute (ABI), the five-year programme aims to establish one of the most ambitious continent-wide platforms for genomic discovery to date.
Although Africa is the birthplace of humankind and home to the world’s deepest genetic diversity, less than 2% of global genomic data currently comes from African populations. This gap has hindered scientific understanding of disease mechanisms and limited the development of treatments tailored to African health realities.
GEN-IMPACT seeks to reverse this trend by building a coordinated, Africa-led genomics ecosystem that ensures African genomes and African scientists take centre stage in future medical discoveries.
Dr Evelyn Gitau, Chief Scientific Officer at the SFA Foundation, noted that the initiative goes beyond research outputs to reshape representation in global science.
“For too long, Africa’s genetic richness has been missing from global datasets,” she said. “GEN-IMPACT is about changing who contributes to discovery science and ensuring African data advances African health.”
A cornerstone of GEN-IMPACT is its integration with APCC’s extensive, longitudinal cohorts across the continent. These datasets capture health, environmental, and demographic information from diverse African communities, providing a unique foundation for precision medicine.
According to Dr Kobus Herbst, Chair of APCC, the partnership stands to redefine how disease risk is understood globally.
“By linking our deep cohort data with genomic and environmental insights, we can uncover ancestry-specific disease mechanisms that have never been studied before,” he said. “This is how Africa begins to shape medical evidence for its own populations.”
The African Bioinformatics Institute will lead efforts to train the next generation of bioinformaticians and develop governance systems to ensure ethical use and ownership of African data.
GEN-IMPACT is expected to deliver not only scientific breakthroughs but also a demonstration of the power of coordinated African leadership in high-impact research. By uniting cohort platforms, computational expertise, and a mission-driven funding model, the initiative aims to generate evidence that can directly inform clinical practice, policy, and public health across the continent.
Article by Jed Mwangi
Photo courtesy /Google
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