(Monday, January 6, 2014) At the opening ceremony of the Second West African Regional Workshop on Protozoan Pathogens, U.S. Ambassador to Mali Mary Beth Leonard recalled the “excellent collaboration between the United States Government and that of Mali.” The workshop will focus on the effects of these pathogens on pregnancies. The Ambassador noted that it is “imperative to better understand these pathogens and their behavior in pregnant women and pass this knowledge to the next generation of researchers in order to reduce as much as possible the number of women suffering from them.” The two-week workshop is organized by the National Institute of Health (NIH) in collaboration with the International Center for Excellence in Research at the University of Sciences, Techniques, and Technologies of Bamako (USTTB), and Seattle Biomed. Speakers at the opening ceremony included the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research; the USTTB Chancellor; the Dean of the USTTB faculty of Pharmacy, and a representative of workshop organizers from NIAID/NIH.