BioRTC is delighted to announce that two members of the Maina Lab at the Biomedical Science Research and Training Centre (BioRTC); Alameen Mukhtar and Shamsudeen Adamu Liman, have commenced an advanced international training programme in the United Kingdom through support from Prof. Mahmoud Bukar Maina’s EMBO Global Investigator Network (GIN) Award.

The training begins at Taylor Analytical Spectroscopy Services Ltd (TASS), where they are receiving hands-on training in the installation, assembly, calibration, operation, and maintenance of circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy systems. This training is particularly significant as BioRTC recently acquired a JASCO Circular Dichroism spectrometer system valued at over ₦200 million, aimed at strengthening advanced protein structural biology and aggregation research capacity in Nigeria.

Circular dichroism spectroscopy is an important technique used to study protein structure, folding, and aggregation, including disease-associated proteins such as tau and amyloid-beta implicated in Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders.

Following this, they will continue their training at the University of Sussex, applying CD spectroscopy to investigate amyloid-beta and tau protein aggregation relevant to Alzheimer’s disease and related tauopathies.

Upon their return to Nigeria, they will lead CD-based structural and biophysical studies within the Maina Lab at BioRTC and support the training of additional researchers in advanced protein analysis techniques.

We sincerely thank EMBO – excellence in life sciences, Taylor Analytical Spectroscopy Services Ltd, and the University of Sussex for supporting this important capacity-building initiative.