Want to collaborate on the next study?
Want to join a cancer genomics-focused training cohort?
Looking for guidance on launching local genomics study or precision oncology intiatives?

Please reach out. Follow @iccareforblackmen.bsky.social and me. We’re open to partnerships and mentorships.

This is a call to:
• Researchers: Let’s build multi-site African genomics cohorts
• Clinicians: Let’s move toward point-of-care genetic testing
• Funders: Invest in local genomic capacity
• Students: Join our mentorship training tracks

This is how we build local capacity.
Enough of the dependency.

It is also a testament to the commitment of CaPTC and @iccareforblackmen.bsky.social to developing local capacity and discouraging vampire science.

Many thanks to Nigerian iccareforblackmen.bsky.social, and CaPTC investigators and our outstanding graduate students and early-stage investigators in our group

All 3 pathogenic mutations were found in women with triple-negative breast cancer, with family history of cancer. BRCA1 mutations were found in women below 40yr of age.

The distinct haplotypes show that ancestry-specific variants matter and that African populations can’t rely on Eurocentric panels.

Using next generation sequencing approach we identified:
• 3 pathogenic BRCA1/2 mutations
• 97 benign variants
• 18 variants of unknown significance
• Distinct Nigerian haplotypes

With a population of over 200 million and over 100,000 newly diagnosed cancers annually, this work demonstrates the competency of the local capacity, resources, and infrastructure to meet the precision oncology needs of our patients.

This publication is our bold move to change the paradigm and reduced the barrier to inequities in access to precision oncology care.

This is important because we reported the overdependency of African cancer genomics on foreign knowledge. This painted a picture that Africa lacked the capacity to address its cancer burden (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34033494/).

Yes, other cancer genomics studies exist. But here’s the game-changer:

To our knowledge, this is the first study conducted entirely in Nigeria—from sample collection to sequencing to variant calling to haplotype mapping.

No foreign sequencing. No outsourced bioinformatics.

But this is bigger than data or just another study—this is a demonstration of African cancer genomic independence required for achieving equity in global precision oncology and cancer control.