MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research

CVR researchers are part of AFRICO19, a collaborative project designed to enhance our capacity to understand SARS-CoV-2 infection in Kenya, The Gambia, and Uganda.

CVR researchers will provide genomics and bioinformatics support.

AFRICO19 is a partnership project with colleagues at the MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit, KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and University of Glasgow, funded by Wellcome.

• African COVID-19 preparedness (AFRICO19) - Wellcome Grant Award

The CVR has also secured funding from the University of Glasgow to support two new projects focusing on COVID-19 related activities in low- and middle-income countries:

• CVR researchers will collaborate with colleagues at the MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit and Uganda Virus Research Institute to support the establishment of a biorepository of sera. Samples will be obtained from confirmed cases of COVID-19 and community control groups in Uganda. This biorepository will be essential for testing immunoassays for detecting COVID-19 infections and for determining if a protective immune response occurs in recovered COVID-19 patients.

• CVR researchers will collaborate with colleagues at the University of Malawi’s College of Medicine and Glasgow’s College of Science & Engineering to compare point-of-care (POC) diagnostics to the existing gold standard RT-PCR tests.  While also evaluating the at-risk Malawian health care worker population for COVID-19 exposure. This will provide guidance on diagnostics and an understanding of exposure risks for health care workers.