Cameroon-Excursion 2014

At the end of the summer semester in Tübingen, Alfons Renz and Albert Eisenbarth went back to Cameroon on the 29th of July, together with two students, cand. biol. Patrick Bürgel and Dipl. biol. Alexander Schinko.

During the first two weeks of our trip, we stayed at the Programme-Onchocercoses laboratory in Ngaoundéré. At the beginning of the third week, we visited our new partner in Bamenda, Dr. Flore Nguemaim Ngoufo. Together we had an impressive tour to the Menchum valley, where Flore’s team collects entomological and epidemiological data on human and bovine onchocercoses.

COBE-Bamendas-team-August-2014-NgaoundereOn our way back from Bamenda we visited the Medical Research Station in Kumba, where we first started our project in 1974 to 1979 and from 1984 to 1987. We also visited our colleagues Prof. Samuel Wanji and Dr. Peter Enyong in their laboratory in Buea. Samuel has collaborated with our project since 1991, together with Dr. Odile Bain and Dr. Goetz Wahl. Peter was the first to visit our fieldwork in Tcholliré in 1977. It was very satisfying to see their famous lab in Buea, which since it was set up 20 years ago, has conducted top-level research on all kind of filarial parasites and vectors. We were particularly impressed with their pan-filarial rodent model, which was a breakthrough in small animal models for chemotherapeutic and immunological studies.

More photos of this Cameroon-excursion can be seen in the Gallery

 

The COBE lab at IRAD Bambui in Bamenda: Dr. Flore Nguemaim and her team