LRHG Course: Lecture 20 - Cultural Perspectives on Autism Spectrum Disorder in Africa

The Tunis Global Center celebrated a significant milestone : the 20th lecture of the LRHG course, marking the start of the academic year 2022-2023.

This event was a special collaboration between the Tunis Center, Institut Pasteur de Tunis, and the Nairobi Global Center. Our guest, Dr. Syokau Ilovi, is an internist, and clinical geneticist at the Nairobi School of Medicine, University of Nairobi, Kenya.

The lecture provided a deep exploration into the relationship between culture and Autism Spectrum Disorder within the African context. Dr. Syokau Ilovi offered valuable insights into whether, with thousands of years of migration, Africans still retain some cultural similarities in this regard. She also delved into what African cultures believe and understand about the disorder, and how these cultural perspectives can positively impact the health and well-being of individuals with the disorder, their families, and their communities. Ilovi also stressed the importance of incorporating ethnographic evaluations into African genetic studies related to the disorder, recognizing that such an approach can lead to better outcomes and potential breakthroughs in research initiatives.

Watch the full recording here for a deeper dive into this lecture.

More about the speaker:

Dr. Syokau Ilovi is an Internist and Clinical Geneticist at the University of Nairobi School of Medicine, Kenya. With 18 years of clinical experience, her areas of interest span academic and clinical medicine, research, and patient advocacy. Having recently undertaken training in clinical genetics, her current focus is on advancing genetics within the Kenyan population through clinical care, research and policy formulation.

The LRHG course is in partnership with Institut Pasteur de Tunis - معهد باستور تونس. You can join us every first Wednesday of the month for a new and enlightening lecture ?‍?

More information on the course and recordings of the previous lectures can be found here.

• Lecture 19 - The Monogenic Architecture of Retinal and Neurological Diseases

• Lecture 18 - Variability in Biological Systems: Study of 24-h Blood Pressure Monitoring

• Lecture 17 - Exploring the oral microbiota by metagenomics approach: from Bacteria to Archaea

• Lecture 16 - A multi-disciplinary examination of Alzheimer Disease in extreme samples

• Lecture 15 - Novel genomic variants and genetic factors involved in Disorders of Sexual Development

• Lecture 14: Simple Traits by Ken Weiss

• Lecture 13: Introductory class and the latest research in Human Genetics

• Lecture 12 - Systems Genetics of Human Functional Variation

• Lecture 11 - The Ins and Outs of Sustaining Longitudinal Cohort for Genetic Studies

• Lecture 10 - CNVs detection from exome sequencing data