TRAINING IN SINGLE GENOME AMPLIFICATION ASSAY

I had an opportunity to attend training sponsored by The HIV Research Trust at the University of Cape Town. Our research looks at HIV-1 inter/intra subtype dual/mixed infection; prevalence in HIV-1 infected Ugandans and its relationship to disease stage and progression. The molecular assays used include Heteroduplex Mobility Assay (HMA), cloning, DNA sequencing, Single Genome Amplification (SGA) and phylogenetic analysis.

The SGA was not set up in our lab at the time of the grant application. We therefore requested for funding to have this technique learnt at the University of Cape Town and later transfer the technology to our lab to continue with surveillance of dual infections in our cohorts.

This SGA has been learnt and we have set up the technique in our labs in Entebbe. This assay generates several full-length HIV-1 envelope gene sequences. These sequences are then analysed by the various phylogenetic tools to confirm HIV-1 dual infections.

Way forward
We are currently using the assay in our lab to analyse further the dually/triply infected individuals and their singly infected partners. This is being done by analyzing the available prospective blood samples to determine if the singly infected individuals acquire new infections from their dually infected partners. To determine the contribution of dual/mixed infection to recombination, we are analysing prospective samples from dually/triply infected individuals.

Acknowledgement
I gratefully acknowledge the HIV Research Trust for encouraging career development for young up-coming Scientists. This funding has greatly contributed to my quick completion and submission of my PhD thesis later this year. To the HIV Trust I am very grateful for the training opportunity.