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01 November 2021 | Story André Damons
Prof Martin Nyaga, an Associate Professor: Next Generation Sequencing (UFS-NGS) and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre (WHO CC), says there is a need to invest heavily in medical research, especially in next-generation sequencing facilities.

South Africa is at the forefront of SARS-CoV-2 genomics surveillance in Africa, and the University of the Free State (UFS) Next Generation Sequencing (UFS-NGS) Unit is playing a major role in responding rapidly to public health threats in South Africa and other African countries.

Prof Martin Nyaga, Associate Professor in the UFS-NGS Unit and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre (WHO CC), and Dr Peter Mwangi, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the UFS-NGS Unit, say medical research in Africa is seriously deficient when benchmarked against other developed continents in terms of the capacity to perform SARS-CoV-2 genomics. According to them, an article published in a nature science journal provided evidence that African nations were largely uninvolved in clinical trials for the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

“If African leaders are to learn one thing from the current pandemic, it is the need to provide adequate resources and funding for medical research, especially in next-generation sequencing facilities. Anyone keen on real-time data and information on the COVID-19 pandemic understands how fundamental sequencing the SARS-CoV-2 genome is. Rapid sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 genome has played a key role in accelerating the development of emergency vaccines against this devastating disease,” say the two researchers.

Genome sequencing projects are collaborative efforts

Prof Nyaga is heading the WHO CC after the UFS was designated as a collaborating centre for vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD) surveillance and pathogen genomics last year. The centre is located in the Division of Virology in the Faculty of Health Sciences. It is also part of the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA), a genomics network/consortium established to respond rapidly to public health threats in South Africa.

Genome sequencing projects are usually collaborative efforts involving different stakeholders, including the national government through the Ministry of Health, scientists, and clinicians. The UFS-NGS Unit is actively involved in sequencing SARS-CoV-2 samples in the Free State channelled through the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS-FS).

The sequenced data generated by the unit is continuously deposited in the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) database through the code name UFS-VIRO-NGS. The UFS-NGS Unit is currently performing whole-genome sequencing runs of approximately 100 SARS-CoV-2 samples per month.

“Through continuous processing of SARS-CoV-2 samples, the UFS-NGS Unit has optimised several techniques for COVID-19 genomics, from wet-lab to dry-lab analysis, captured in the internal protocols of the unit. The unit is continuously generating quality SARS-CoV-2 sequence data for the national consortium that is important for vaccine immunogenicity research projects geared towards regional vaccine development,” says Prof Nyaga.

Analysis of genome sequence data plays significant role in vaccine development

According to Prof Nyaga and Dr Mwangi, the sequence data generated in the UFS-NGS Unit has been key to establishing the SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest (VOI) and variants of concern (VOC). The VOI and VOC require one or more appropriate public health actions, including enhanced sequence surveillance, enhanced laboratory characterisation, or epidemiological investigations to assess how easily the virus spreads, the severity of disease, the risk of infection, and whether currently authorised vaccines offer protection.

“An example of a VOC strain is the 20H/501.V2 in lineage B.1.351 that was first discovered in South Africa after analysis of whole-genome sequence data, highlighting the importance of whole-genome SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Consequently, analysis of the whole genome sequence data plays a significant role not only in vaccine development efforts, but also in advising policy to global and African governments on protection measures to be undertaken to curtail COVID-19 transmission,” explain the researchers.

The UFS-NGS Unit has been working collaboratively with other African scientists and actively training African students from different cultural backgrounds, not only on SARS-CoV-2 genomics, but also on different research clusters. The diversity of ideas through engagement with African researchers to share knowledge and push scientific innovation exemplifies the value of working together in the spirit of Ubuntu to develop solutions to our African problems. As we commemorate Africa Month 2021, let us be inspired by our hardworking UFS researchers, who are promoting African solidarity by working collaboratively in medical research to strive for a safe, healthy, and prosperous Africa.

  • The key members of NGS-SA working on SARS-CoV-2 genomics samples from the Free State, are Prof Dominique Goedhals (Head: Division of Virology), Prof Martin Nyaga, Mr Phillip Bester (Medical Scientist: Division of Virology), Dr Peter Mwangi, Mr Milton Mogotsi (Research Assistant: UFS-NGS Unit), and Mr Ayodeji Ogunbayo (Research Assistant: UFS-NGS Unit).

News Archive

Alexander Ramm Cello Recital with Pieter Jacobs (piano)
2016-04-15

Description: Ramm Tags: Ramm

Alexander Ramm

“Ramm plays with enormous musical authority. Unlike many young instrumentalists, he is not intimidated by the reflective or the elegiac; nor is he nervous about the length of pauses, or the creation of inter-phrase silence. He has a phenomenal technique and he demonstrated it to full effect in this captivating performance.” (Cape Times)

Alexander Ramm belongs to the new generation of cellists recognised for his appealing artistic creativity and unprecedented technical skills. Alexander started his musical education at the age of seven at the Glier music school (Kaliningrad) with Svetlana Ivanova. Her extremely serious attitude to music studies and pedagogical talent revealed the rare musical capabilities of this young cellist.

After moving to Moscow at the age of ten, he was accepted to the class of Maria Zhuravleva at the Chopin Moscow College of Music Performance. From 2007, he continued his professional education at the Moscow Conservatory in the class of the renowned musician and the People’s Artist of the USSR, Natalia Shakhovskaya, an outstanding performer and pedagogue who taught most prominent Russian cellists. Since 2012, he has become a postgraduate student at the Hanns-Eisler Hochschule fur Musik under the guidance of the famous cellist, Frans Helmerson.

From the age of nine, when he made his debut as a soloist with the Kaliningrad Chamber Orchestra, Alexander brilliantly performs with solo programmes and as a soloist with leading orchestras in Russia and worldwide.

He is prizewinner at several international competitions:
1st prize: 4th Moscow Competition for young cellists (2003)
1st prize: 1st Cambridge International Boston Competition (Massachusetts, 2005)
Grand-Prix: Moscow Festival of Romantic Music (Moscow, 2006)
4th prize: 5th UNISA International String Competition (South Africa, 2010)
1st prize: 3rd Beijing International Music Competition (Beijing 2010)
1st prize: 1st All-Russia Music Competition (Russia, 2010)
Prizewinner: Janigro Cello Competition (Croatia, 2012)
Prizewinners: Swedish Duo Competition with duo partner Anna Odintsova (2012)
3rd prize: Paulo Cello Competition (2013) – becoming the first Russian prizewinner in the history of this prestigious contest
2nd prize: XV International Tchaikovsky Competition (2015)

Alexander participated in masterclass festivals at Courchevel Academy and Holland Music Sessions, where he took lessons from the famous musicians such as F. Muller, R. Latzko, M. Kliegel and U. Wiesel. In 2011, he took part in the well-known Verbier festival, where he studied with H. Hoffmann, F. Helmerson, M. Suzuki, L. Power and F. Radosh. At the end of the festival, he was awarded the Neva Foundation top-level prize for gifted students.

Alexander cooperates with such outstanding conductors as V. Gergiev, V. Spivakov, A. Levin, K. Orbelyan, V. Polyansky, S. Kochanovsky, M. Fedotov, A. Slutsky, A. Sladkovsky.

He will be accompanied by Pieter Jacobs, a graduate of the University of Pretoria, who then furthered his studies at Yale in the United States, where he pursued his performing career with considerable success as a soloist and chamber musician in Boston, Cambridge and New Haven before returning to South Africa to perform and teach at the University of Pretoria. Pieter is regarded as one of SA’s foremost pianists and chamber musicians.

Programme:
Grieg: Cello Sonata, Op. 36 in A minor (1883)
Barber: Cello Sonata, Op. 6 in C minor (1932)
Prokofiev: Cello Sonata, Op. 119 (1949)
Piazzolla: Le Grand Tango for cello and piano

Date: 22 April 2016
Time: 19:30
Venue: Odeion
Costs: R130 (adults), R90 (pensioners), R70 (UFS staff members), R50 (students and learners), R50 (group booking of 10+). Tickets available at Computicket.

More information: Ninette Pretorius +27(0)51 401 2504.

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