Capacity Building Programs
Beyond the lab's own R25 program, Dr. Davis collaborates on BioStruct-Africa's hands-on structural biology capacity-building workshops for Africa-based scientists.
BioStruct-Africa Workshops
A grassroots capacity-building program bringing hands-on structural biology and AI-assisted training to Africa-based scientists.
Hands-on Training in Structural Biology
BioStruct-Africa is a grassroots non-governmental organization, co-founded and led by Dr. Emmanuel Nji, that builds capacity for Africa-based researchers in structural biology. Its workshops pair theoretical lectures with hands-on training in X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, AlphaFold structure prediction, and computational drug design, followed by post-workshop online mentoring and a "train-the-trainer" model so graduates return as facilitators in later cohorts. Dr. Davis is a collaborator and co-author on the program's published outcomes research.
Track record
Ghana → Nairobi
Workshops held in Ghana (2019), Mali (2022), Douala, Cameroon (2024), and Nairobi, Kenya (2025).
2025 flagship (Series 6)
101 trainees
From 18 African countries, selected from 198 applications — held at ILRI, Nairobi, August 2025.
Representation
40% women
All eligible women applicants were selected for the Nairobi cohort.
10-year vision
~1,000 scientists
Goal of training 100 Africa-based structural biologists per year through this scalable framework.
Curriculum
- ✓ X-ray crystallography & cryo-EM fundamentals
- ✓ AlphaFold structure prediction & interpretation
- ✓ Computational drug design (Schrödinger platform)
- ✓ Protein visualization & analysis in PyMOL
Measured outcomes
- ✓ Average satisfaction score of 4.47/5 across the Nairobi 2025 cohort
- ✓ Post-training assessments showed 10%+ score improvements
- ✓ 92.75% of participants would recommend the workshop to colleagues