It is such a great pleasure to welcome you to the African Centre for DNA Barcoding (ACDB).

The Centre was established in 2011 by Prof. Michelle van der Bank (my PhD supervisor), within the Department of Botany at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. Since January 2025, I have taken over from Prof. van der Bank as the new Director of the Centre with the vision of taking the Centre to another level (see Vision and Mission sections).

ACDB is primarily an academic research Centre where the next generation of Academics and researchers are trained. We train Honours, MSc and PhD students in Conservation Biology. At ACDB, we aim to reveal/understand the evolutionary and ecological forces that drive plant diversification and structure plant communities across space and time, bearing in mind how this understanding can guide conservation decisions at local and global scales.

Our research address conservation issues from various angles (ecology, evolution, biogeography, etc.) with phylogenetic tools the common denominator in all we do.

Director of ACDB | Prof. Kowiyou Yessoufou

Director of ACDB
Prof. Kowiyou Yessoufou

Research Areas

At ACDB, we host the state-of-the-art equipment for DNA sequencing, molecular taxonomy to accelerate biodiversity assessment and evolutionary studies.
We are witnessing an unprecedented biodiversity crisis largely driven by anthropogenic pressures. Some even refer to this crisis as the 6th mass extinction. At ACDB, we contribute, using modern statistics and AI, to accelerate extinction risk assessment and analyze risk patterns and impacts on the tree of life.
At ACDB, we aim to accelerate knowledge on biological invasion to inform control/management strategies and policies in Africa.
At ACDB, we are working towards the development of mathematical models of population dynamics at least for our threatened species in Africa to understand how these species respond to environmental changes.
If you are passionate about modern plant ecology, evolution and conservation, and intend to learn R for quantitative and phylogenetic data analysis, you are welcome to join ACDB to discuss projects, fundings and potential collaborations.
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Our Vision

Our vision is to make ACDB the first African reference in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation.

 

Our Mission

  • Leading African contributions to global debate on biodiversity and conservation issues from an evolutionary perspective in the form of scientific publications.
  • Training students and professionals in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Conservation.
  • Documenting African flora, fauna and macro-fungi in the form
    of DNA bank.
  • Rendering DNA sequencing services to universities, governments, or organizations