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Tami Gjorgjieva, a PhD candidate in genetics at the School of Medicine and second-year RAISE fellow, collaborates with Tanzania Human Genetics Organization (THGO), a leading advocate for genetics research and education in Tanzania. Their partnership seeks to enhance mentorship opportunities by matching Stanford PhD students and postdoctoral researchers with trainees in Tanzania.
“It is important to have clinical geneticists, molecular geneticists, genetic counselors, bioinformaticians, and lab scientists – all of these need to come together for human genetics to be part of routine health care,” said Mohamed Zahir Alimohamed, a lecturer in genetics at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences and co-founder of the Tanzania Human Genetics Organization. “This is currently not the case in Tanzania.”
The mentorship program aims to bridge that gap by leveraging the expertise of both local and international researchers. Utilizing THGO’s existing infrastructure has allowed the delivery of training workshops, including a course with input from local experts on genetics, ethics, and society, co-taught by Stanford students and faculty and local Tanzanian postdocs and faculty experts.
“Let’s say you are a trainee in Tanzania and have genetic data that you’re interested in analyzing, but are unsure where to start. We would match you with a mentor at Stanford who has experience in that area and set up an individualized training program over the course of a few weeks,” Gjorgjieva said.
Beyond individual training, the program is designed as a two-way learning experience. Tanzanian trainees gain technical skills and mentorship while Stanford researchers and students also benefit from understanding genetics in the African context, engaging with the realities of resource-limited settings, and learning from local expertise.
“We’re hoping that the mentees of today’s mentorship program become the mentors of tomorrow in Tanzania,” Gjorgjieva said.
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First published in March 20th, 2025 on Stanford News
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