mikemwanga/Project-3

Interrogating public datasets and paths to results on COVID-19 in East Africa ## Project-3 ### Group Members: 1. Ibra Lujumba 2. Mike Mwanga 3. Eve Akurut 4. Paul Talent 5. Levis Katwiire 6. Edward Lukyamuzi 7. Omara Isaac Emmanuel ### Background Information on Project three Covid-19 has affected all of our lives, and the pandemic is still running its course around the world. This has spurred an unprecedented scientific effort to understand the pathogen, SARS-CoV2, and the means of its spread and control. Since the start of this year, vast quantities of bioinformatic and epidemiological data have been created, much of which is publicly accessible, and analyses have been published in peer-reviewed as well as non-peer-reviewed media. This creates the potential for rapid and fruitful international collaboration and a low barrier to entry for researchers. On the other hand, it raises the risk of poor uses of data being published and influencing public opinion. This project will engage with publicly available data, in particular, viral sequence data on Covid-19 in East Africa, such as datarepository.wolframcloud…, ebi.ac.uk, portals summarised here: clinbioinfosspa.es Analyses could include, but are not limited to: phylogenetics of viral evolution in East Africa, comparison to viral sequences found elsewhere in the world, assessments of how representative the available sequences are of the current viral diversity in the region, descriptions of highly variable and conserved sequences, de novo annotation of the viral genome. Alternatively, participants could pick an interesting recent publication using available data and recapitulate (and assess) the approach described there. Due to the huge research attention in this field, many analyses are currently ongoing, and participants will need to identify and clearly define the research questions they want to tackle. Participant-led e …