African DSI DataBank

ThankGod is the Founder & Co-Chair of the African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) as well as the Principal Software & Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer for the African DSI DataBank. With extensive multi-year experiences in biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics projects, research, community-building, Software Engineering and AI, stakeholders engagements and partnership frameworks, as well as ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) of DSI. ThankGod obtained his PhD degree from the University of Cambridge, UK; MSc from the University of Lagos, and BSc from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria. Through the AfricaBP and its Open Institute, ThankGod brought together over 65 African and non-African institutions, and since 2022 has supported the coordination and delivery of over 130 workshops across 12 African countries that reached over 50 African states, and trained over 1500 African researchers in hands-on genomics, bioinformatics, data analysis, molecular biology, ELSI and DSI.

Contributions: Built and engineered the African DSI DataBank; implemented and carried out all Software and AI Engineering works, including ongoing production and maintenance.

Prof. Achraf El Allali is an Associate Professor at the College of Computing at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), where he leads the Bioinformatics Laboratory aimed at advancing UM6P's research goals in agriculture, environment, and health. His research lies at the intersection of computational omics and genomic language models (gLMs), leveraging sequence-to-function foundation models to decode complex biological sequences. Prof. El Allali drives the development of innovative computational tools, algorithms, and high-performance web applications, while establishing dedicated platforms and databases to host web services for the broader scientific community. Through these computational omics resources, his work enables high-throughput data analysis and functional annotation across genomic, metagenomic, and bio-environmental applications.

Contributions: Prof El Allali has been involved in planning the African DSI DataBank through strategic engagements with the core team. He was involved in evaluating the platform, conducting testing, and providing actionable feedback during its incubation. Moving forward, he aims to expand the platform’s impact by facilitating regional node connections, supporting database cross-referencing, and driving seamless interoperability across African repositories.

Dr. Abdoallah Sharaf is a Senior Bioinformatician at SequAna – Sequencing Analysis Core Facility, University of Konstanz, Germany, and Professor of Genetics at Ain Shams University, Egypt. He has completed several international research fellowships and collaborations with leading institutions in Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic, gaining extensive experience in international genomics research environments. Dr. Sharaf serves voluntarily as Co-Chair of the African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP), Science, Technology, Monitoring, and Evaluation Subcommittee (STMEC), where he contributes to strategic planning, genomic data generation, and capacity-building initiatives across Africa. His research focuses on comparative genomics and genome evolution, particularly in unicellular eukaryotes near the root of major eukaryotic supergroups. He has strong expertise in genome assembly and annotation using short- and long-read sequencing technologies and is actively involved in developing scalable, reproducible bioinformatics pipelines for genome and transcriptome analysis. Dr. Sharaf regularly serves as a peer reviewer for several international journals and is a member of the Reviewer Board for MDPI Microorganisms and the Genetics and Biodiversity Journal (GABJ).

Contributions: Dr. Sharaf has contributed to the development of the Gene2OneHealth tool and has been involved in reviewing, testing, and providing feedback on the African DSI DataBank. Going forward, he aims to contribute further to the development and testing of bioinformatics tools and data resources, particularly those supporting genomic data discovery, analysis, and capacity building across Africa.