WORKSHOPS :

Registrar training in DNA diagnostics - short course 19 to 21 April 2010

 

UCT/NHLS held a three day practical course on the fundamentals of DNA diagnostics - DNA isolation from varied tissues (blood, buccal scrapes, bacterial cultures), restriction enzyme analyses (designer DNA), gel electrophoresis (pour and run gels), PCR and primer design (set up several PCRs), mutation detection (Cystic fibrosis), sequencing (analyse traces), result analysis, report writing and bioinformatics (SNP and mutation sequence retrieval from DNA databases).

The intention of this course was to provide significant laboratory hands-on time to extract and analyze DNA and then make a clinical diagnosis on the results obtained. There also was good coverage of the underlying principles and critical aspects of DNA chemistry.

Registrars also visited each of the pathology divisions and received instruction on light cycler applications (haematology and virology), line-probe assays (microbiology), FISH markers (cytogenetics), bead-array testing (tissue immunology) and MLPA (genetics).

A similar course was held in July 2008

 

Training workshops in Laboratory Methods

The Division of Chemical Pathology has been running training workshops in Laboratory Methods since 2006. These are held about twice a year depending on demand. The pictures above show participants on one such workshop held in January 2007. The Workshops are intended to give a trainees a hands-on introduction to some of the common technical methods used in a Clinical Laboratory.

Here are some photos illustrating the workshops:

•  Jul 2006
• Jan 2007
• Jun 2007

The Division of Chemical Pathology also held a Laboratory Statistics Workshop on the 9th December 2006. Dr Pat Twomey, Consultant Chemical Pathologist from Ipswich Hospital, UK was the tutor. Participants were given hands-on training in statistical analysis on individual PC workstations.   Photos ...

Background and history:
The original version of this course was conceived and designed by Dr Pat Twomey in response to training needs for the Royal College of Pathologists MRCPath examination and run, in collaboration with Professor Pillay, at the Queen’s Medical Centre, University of Nottingham for several years. Since 2006, a version of this course has been run by Professor Pillay , (with assistance from members of the Division of Chemical Pathology) at the University of Cape Town at the Merck Advanced Training Laboratory in the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine.

Qualified specialists who have attended the UCT Chemical Pathology workshops:

Name	Current position	Institution
Dr H. van Wyk	Head of Department	Department of Chemical Pathology, Univ of the Free State
Dr U. Wilgen	Consultant	Department of Chemical Pathology, Wits University
Dr G. vd Watt	Consultant	Division of Chemical Pathology, UCT and Red Cross Children's Hospital
Dr E. Coetzee	Consultant	Dept. of Chemical Pathology, University of the Free State
Dr R. Govender	Consultant	Pretoria

 

Details of the course      (250Kb)

For enquiries, check this website for updates or email us

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Introduction to Laboratory Methods - July 2006

Clinical Laboratory Statistics Workshop- December 2006

Introduction to Laboratory Methods - January 2007

Introduction to Laboratory Methods - June 2007