This weekend saw Africa Oyé, the UK’s largest annual free celebration of African music and culture, take place in Sefton Park in Liverpool. Thousands of people turned out for the 25th anniversary of the festival and enjoyed over 40 stalls selling food, drink, arts and crafts and fashion from all over Africa.
Also present within the Oyé village was LSTM’s A·WOL Consortium. It demonstrated its research into the development of new drugs against onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis through family-friendly interactive activities including Beat the Robot, which pitted the public’s pipetting skills against the robotics used by the Group. A·WOL Consortium shared the stand with the North-West Cancer Research group who were at Africa Oyé for the whole weekend and made DNA bracelets with visitors.
LSTM's Public Engagement Manager, Dr Elli Wright, commented: “This is the first-time LSTM has been to Africa Oyé and the members of the public were fantastic and really engaged. The team would like to extend thanks to North West Cancer Research for allowing them to share the space.” She continued: “It is always rewarding to work with other charities, to get the message out there that LSTM is committed to providing life-saving treatment to some of the world’s poorest communities through innovation and education.”