An African Hepatic Modeling Platform: Can We Get There?

The African continent harbors unparalleled genetic diversity yet remains largely underrepresented in  pharmaceutical  research  and  development.  Pharmacogenomics  is  fundamental  to  precision medicine strategies, and although to date largely absent from implementation, representing the genetic diversity of the African population within the laboratory is critical to the democratization of stratified  and  effective  healthcare  in  Africa.  Afrocentric  preclinical  resources  could  support precision  medicine on  the  continent  and  reshape  the  global  underrepresentation  of  African genetics  in  science. Models  which  could  begin  to  address  this  include  primary  human hepatocytes,  immortalized  hepatic  cell  lines,  and human induced  pluripotent  stem  cell  (hiPSC)derived hepatocyte-like cells – derived from individuals of African genetic ancestry. The feasibility of an African hepatic modeling platform is slowly being realized due to the convergence of several technologies and methodologies which have traditionally been siloed on the continent.