Helping Africa help itself

For Valdemar Rodrigues Augusto Tchipenhe, a field-applied scientist from China's genomics sequencing company BGI Genomics Huo-Yan Laboratory in Africa, studying in China and bringing Chinese biotech back to serve Africa gives him a feeling of extra responsibilities on his shoulders.

Tchipenhe, who comes from Angola and has been in China for six years, said BGI has helped three African countries of Gabon, Togo, and Benin install biological nucleic acid laboratories and provided workflow training to local lab technicians to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic.

He was selected to be part of a team for the Huo-Yan Project for the screening and testing of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, for both present and future needs.

"Installing devices, building up labs, training local technicians, and dealing with all the problems that may occur in the process, the things I do here may look laborious, but I do believe that I'm doing good for the benefit of the African people, fighting against the coronavirus," he said.