Molecular Data for Infectious Diseases

Rationale

Despite rapid advances in molecular methods, their implementation in low-resource environments often remains cumbersome due to logistic, financial, and human resource constraints. MID focusses on the selection and analysis of appropriate assays and their implementation in a particular research setting:

• MID is a course for experienced molecular biologists.
• The main focus is to select and implement the proper molecular tools for a given project, and to collect good quality data.
• Such project is an epidemiological or clinical infectious disease study in a resource-limited setting.
• The molecular tools are DNA or RNA-based.
• Examples of topics are pathogen and vector detection and identification and their application in clinical and epidemiological studies.

You need be aware that MID is NOT:

• A course on molecular biology techniques. When you follow MID, we assume you are already familiar with the technical aspects. In the course we focus on applying these techniques in a correct way, implement good quality controls, and building the tools for collecting good quality data.
• There is no hands-on lab training in MID. We assume that MID students are experienced molecular biologists, and are able to carry out a molecular biology protocol correctly when provided with a good SOP.
• A training on the specific disease or pathogen you work on. We use pre-designed projects from the research field of teachers and coaches, which means you probably need to step away from your own work for the duration of the course.
• A bioinformatics course. Even though some parts of the course require application of bioinformatic tools and in silico sequence analysis, this is not the focus of MID. If you are expecting a training on next-generation sequencing, please do not register for MID.