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01 February 2019 | Story Zama Feni | Photo Charl Devenish
Disease Control and Prevention InStory
From left, seated: Dr Mathew Esona, CDC delegate; Dr Michael Bowen, CDC delegate; Dr Martin Nyaga, lead Researcher at the UFS-NGS Unit; standing: Mojalefa Buti, Office of the Vice-Dean, UFS Faculty of Health Sciences; Dr Glen Tylor, Senior Director, Directorate Research Development; Cornelius Hagenmeier, Director, Office for International Affairs; and Dr Saheed Sabiu, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

In pursuit of efforts to advance research on viruses and disease control, the United States-based Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has made a commitment to enhance the University of the Free State (UFS) Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Unit’s data collection systems and further empower its staff and students.

UFS and US guests explore areas of mutual; cooperation

During a visit to the university in early December last year CDC delegation, Dr Michael Bowen and Dr Mathew Esona, a meeting was held with the lead Researcher at the UFS-NGS Unit, Dr Martin Nyaga; Senior Director of the UFS Directorate Research Development, Dr Glen Tylor; Director of UFS Office for International Affairs, Cornelius Hagenmeier; and Dr Saheed Sabiu Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Faculty of Natural and Agriculture Sciences. It was in this meeting that areas of mutual collaboration and engagement between the two institutions which include technology transfer, funding and wet and dry laboratory quality control and capacity development were identified.

The UFS-NGS Unit, established in 2016, enjoys longstanding networking and collaborative ventures with renowned researchers in Africa, the USA, and Europe – which in return, have contributed immensely to the research activities of the university as a whole.

Dr Nyaga said in an effort to advance genomics research in the NGS Unit, the visitors have committed themselves to initiate and further enhance capacity development for the unit’s staff and students.

US guests impressed with advanced equipment at UFS

The CDC delegation were intrigued that the UFS also operates a Miseq Illumina platform like the one used at their enteric-viruses laboratory. It could thus be in line to assist in developing exclusive pipelines for the analysis of NGS data generated by the UFS-NGS Unit.

This is a personal sequencing system, which is a powerful state-of-the-art next-generation sequencer. It uses sequencing-by-synthesis technology capable of sequencing up to 15GB of high-quality filtered bases per run, with up to 600 base-pair read lengths. This allows the assembly of small genomes or the detection of target variants with unmatched accuracy, especially within homo-polymer regions.

UFS and CDC engagements still on

Further engagements about the identified areas of collaboration are ongoing between Hagenmeier, Dr Bowen, and Dr Nyaga, who are currently working on appropriate mechanisms to enact the envisaged collaboration between the two institutions.

The NGS Unit received research awards from the World Health Organisation, South African Medical Research Council, Poliomyelitis Research Foundation, and the National Research Foundation for different aspects of genomics research, and more recently from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the Enteric Viruses Genome Initiative, involving four African countries (South Africa, Ghana, Malawi, and Cameroon).

News Archive

Meet the person behind the new #FaceOfFacebook
2016-05-19

Reuben “R” Davids

The votes have been counted, and we have a winner! After much excitement and a fairly close contest, Reuben “R” Davids emerged victorious from the top five contestants selected by our panel of judges. We chatted with the vibrant and enthusiastic Mr Davids to get a sense of the person who will be our Facebook ambassador for the next year.

What does the “R” stand for?

“Interestingly, some also know me as Vuyo. It's not a name on my birth certificate or anything; I just really like it. And I also coincidentally found out that it means “joy/happiness”, and I do enjoy being happy.”

What is your field of study, and how far along are you?

“I am pursuing a career in the economics field as a third-year BCom Accounting student in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences here at the University of the Free State.”

Are you originally from Bloemfontein?

“Yes, born and bred. I've been a Bloem Kid since day one.”

How is it that you ended up here, studying at the UFS?

“The UFS has always been one of my favourite universities. During my high school period, I was constantly exposed to people from my neighbourhood as well as schoolmates who performing excellently here at UFS, and it didn't go unnoticed. So I have always been drawn to the prestige that UFS carries.”

Which residence are you in, and what do you enjoy most about res life?

“I currently stay at home with the family, but for my first 2 years of study I resided at ConLaurês. What I enjoyed the most about res life is the freedom and independence that you get. It also enables one to participate in campus life much easier. It actually helps one grow and mature into the adult you're supposed to become with all the challenges and responsibilities that you're faced with.”

What do you hope to accomplish during your term as the #FaceOfFacebook?

“I enjoy the art of presenting (as well as being an MC), and being the #FaceOfFacebook will enable me to exercise that skill. Also, my interaction skills will be exercised. That being said, I would like to have those skills developed further by the end of my term as #FaceOfFacebook.”

What is your motivation in your studies, in taking part in this contest, and in life?

“I am an adrenaline junkie. I like taking on challenge; so what I normally do is I set a certain goal for myself and then take on the challenge to achieve that goal. That's my number one motivating factor. And I think I'm also inspired by the failures and successes of myself and of those around me.”

Reuben has already been featured in a #PeopleOfKovsies post on Facebook, and appeared in his first Facebook video covering the Open Day on our Bloemfontein Campus.

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