GenPath Africa Annual Meeting 2026 highlights progress across genomics, drug-resistant TB research, One Health and capacity building

On 14 May 2026, the GenPath Africa consortium held its third Annual Meeting virtually, bringing together project partners from South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya and Germany. The meeting provided an opportunity to review progress across all work packages, share achievements from the past year and discuss priorities for the final phase of the project.

The consortium highlighted substantial progress towards the project’s goal of strengthening genomic surveillance and precision public health approaches to control pathogen infections in Africa. Participants reviewed advances in pathogen genomics, drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), One Health surveillance, bioinformatics and capacity building.

Advancing genomic surveillance and TB implementation

A major focus of the meeting was the continued expansion of genomic surveillance activities across South Africa and Mozambique. Work package leaders reported progress in surveillance of HIV, influenza, arboviruses, mpox, dengue and malaria, as well as advances in HIV drug resistance analyses and viral metagenomics.

The consortium also reviewed progress within the drug-resistant TB implementation activities. Following earlier regulatory and operational challenges, implementation is now fully operational, with real-time sequencing and reporting workflows supporting clinical decision-making. Capacity strengthening activities have been delivered within the South African National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS), and a strategic implementation blueprint for South Africa has been completed and will be published soon.

Building capacity for the future

Capacity development remains a central pillar of GenPath Africa. Partners celebrated the successful launch of the GenPath Africa Master’s programme, which has enrolled 16 students from different countries, with four students receiving funding through the project. The programme was recognised as one of the project’s major achievements and an important contribution to strengthening the next generation of genomic and public health scientists in Africa.

Strengthening One Health and digital innovation

Updates from the One Health work package demonstrated continued progress in wastewater surveillance, antimicrobial resistance monitoring, Rift Valley Fever virus research and zoonotic tuberculosis studies. Partners discussed opportunities to further integrate environmental, animal and human health data and to expand collaborations across institutions and disciplines.

Significant advances were also reported in the development of bioinformatics tools and digital infrastructure. New pipelines, dashboards and metadata management systems have been developed, while different platforms continue to support genomic surveillance and specimen management activities across the consortium.

Preparing for the final project phase

Partners discussed preparations for the project’s final reporting period, and the consortium reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring the long-term sustainability and impact of GenPath Africa's surveillance, research and capacity-strengthening activities beyond the project’s lifetime.

The Annual Meeting once again demonstrated the strength of collaboration across the GenPath Africa consortium and highlighted the significant contributions being made towards advancing genomic surveillance, precision medicine and public health preparedness across Africa.