Ambroise Wonkam | |
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Ambroise Wonkam is a Cameroonian medical doctor and professor of medical genetics at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His research is in sickle cell disease, the genetics of congenital hearing impairment, and ethics in human genetics. He is the current president of the African Society of Human Genetics.
Ambroise Wonkam was born in Yaoundé, Cameroon. He studied at the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences of the University of Yaoundé I, where he received his MD in 1995. [1] [2] In 1997, he went to the University of Geneva to train in cell biology before specializing in medical genetics. [2] He received his doctorate in Medical Sciences in the Department of Morphology on the topic Burden of sickle cell disease and prenatal genetic diagnosis in Cameroon (French: Fardeau de la drépanocytose et diagnostic génétique prénatal au Cameroun ). [3]
Wonkam is a medical practitioner in African and European countries. He joined the University of Cape Town as faculty in 2009, where he studied sickle cell disease and why its severity and mortality varied between individuals. [2] He became professor of medical genetics at the Faculty of Medicine where he was the deputy dean of research and director of the Genetic Medicine of African Populations (GeneMAP) program, which he founded in 2017. [2] [4] He became president of the African Society of Human Genetics in 2019. In 2021, he was named director of genetics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. [4]
Wonkam is spearheading the Three Million African Genomes project, which aims to sequence the DNA of three million Africans in order to make up for systemic shortfalls in the study of the human genetic diversity of Africans. [5] He has proposed that the project be funded by African countries. [6] In 2022, he was a guest editor for special issues of Nature calling for the decolonization and elimination of racism in science. [7]
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Genetic counseling is the process of investigating individuals and families affected by or at risk of genetic disorders to help them understand and adapt to the medical, psychological and familial implications of genetic contributions to disease. This field is considered necessary for the implementation of genomic medicine. The process integrates:
Medical genetics is the branch of medicine that involves the diagnosis and management of hereditary disorders. Medical genetics differs from human genetics in that human genetics is a field of scientific research that may or may not apply to medicine, while medical genetics refers to the application of genetics to medical care. For example, research on the causes and inheritance of genetic disorders would be considered within both human genetics and medical genetics, while the diagnosis, management, and counselling people with genetic disorders would be considered part of medical genetics.
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James Edward Bowman Jr. was an American physician and specialist in pathology, hematology, and genetics. He was a professor of pathology and genetics at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago. He published more than ninety works across the fields of human genetics; population genetics; and ethical, legal and public policy issues in human genetics. He received many awards, including the Chicago African American History Makers Award and recognition from the Hastings Center and Stanford’s Kaiser Family Foundation, and Howard University.
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Felix Israel Domeno Konotey-Ahulu FGA, FRCPSG, FRCP, FWACP is a Ghanaian physician and scientist who is Kwegyir Aggrey Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and a consultant physician/genetic counsellor, Haemoglobinopathy/Sickle Cell States, in Harley Street, London. He is one of the world's foremost experts on sickle-cell disease.
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The African Society of Human Genetics (AfSHG) is a learned society and professional membership organization focused on the study of human genetics and genomics in Africans, and open to researchers who are interested in the subject. It has played a role in founding several national genetics societies, and is affiliated with the societies of Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Egypt, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania.
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