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Kinshasa

IBRO-GOC (Gabon Oregon Center) Event on NEGLECTED TROPICAL


NEUROLOGICAL DISEASES AND CONDITIONS: CURRENT UNDERSTANDING AND
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES, September 2015

The African Regional Committee (ARC)-IBRO has successfully organized a two-week
long advanced neuroscience school on - NEGLECTED TROPICAL NEUROLOGICAL
DISEASES AND CONDITIONS: CURRENT UNDERSTANDING AND
METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES - in the developing world. A two-week long
training program was deemed necessary to allow close mentoring and student-to-
faculty interactions with a special emphasis on students scientific interests. A
robust team of local and international faculty reviewed the current understanding
and methodologies used to explore risk factors, biomarkers, and mechanisms of
neglected tropical diseases and conditions of the nervous system including but not
limited to Human African Trypanosomiasis, severe malaria, HIV and HTLV-I
associated myelopathy, neurotoxic syndromes including konzo, malnutrition, and
epilepsy among other complications.


A total of 25 student representatives of Congo-Kinshasa (DRC), Gabon, Cameroun,
Kenya, Togo, and Egypt attended the school. Faculty included Desire Tshala-
Katumbay (Congo-USA, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland OR), Jean-
Claude Mwanza (Congo-USA, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC), Michael
Boivin (Michigan State University, USA), Dan Gibbs (Oregon Health & Science
University, Portland OR), Pierre Luabeya (Congo-Belgium, UNIKIN), Evelyne
Sernargor (Newcastle, UK), Francis Bivigou (Gabon-Oregon Center and Eric

Benjaminson, University of Oregon, Eugene OR, USA); Daniel Okitundu and Leon
Kazumba (University of Kinshasa-UNIKIN, DRC), and Mumba Ngoyi (University of
Kinshasa and National Institute of Biomedical Research, DRC), Nadege Gombe
(UNIKIN) and Theophile Bemba (UNIKIN, DRC). Post-event activities included a
two-day national congress on neuroscience and a global advocacy session on the last
day with a special focus on brain health and child development under adverse
environmental conditions. Events were co-sponsored by IBRO, the Gabon-Oregon
Center, Vodacom-Congo, and the Congo Ministry of Higher Education. Gallery
(classroom, small group discussions, award ceremony) and as follows.


Last Image. Certificate awarded by the Congo Ministry of Higher Education.

Prof. Dr. Tshala-Katumbay, Desire
On Behalf of School Organizers

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