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Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, Director of Pharmacology, has received a DSI high-end infrastructure (HEI) grant to establish one of the most advanced modern Pharmacology GLP-accredited research and development laboratories in the country, and possibly in the region.

The Department of Pharmacology at the University of the Free State (UFS) will establish one of the most advanced modern Pharmacology GLP-accredited research and development laboratories in the country, and possibly in the region, after receiving a grant of R58 million. 

Prof Motlalepula Matsabisa, Director of Pharmacology, has received a DSI high-end infrastructure (HEI) grant to build the laboratory, which will be a centre of excellence for the government, the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the African Union’s (AU) Commission for Social Development. The grant will also be used to build an herbal medicines production/manufacturing facility, as well as piloting a health facility for traditional medicines. 

“I am excited to bring this huge grant to the UFS and look forward to the institution working effortlessly to become one of the leaders in this initiative. We aim to respond to our local, regional, and international research needs, our product development and commercialisation requirements, and to be competitive according to current international standards. The facility will be a unique place to learn and put theory into practice and develop the research from the bench to the hospital bedside,” says Prof Matsabisa. 

Laboratories will host students, researchers, and scientists

According to him, the research and development laboratories, as a centre of excellence, will host students, researchers, and scientists from the continent in order to practicalise and strengthen bilateral African science and technology development, as well as South-South collaborations, while maintaining its international outlook. This will lead to proper drug discovery, drug development, and product development, serving a number of clients, including communities, traditional health practitioners, the pharmaceutical industry, as well as policy makers. 

“We will develop the facilities to compete in international herbal-medicine markets.  With this injection of funding, as well as support from all our clients, namely universities – the UFS in particular – the government, and the WHO and AU, including support from traditional health practitioners, communities, and the herbal pharmaceutical industry, failure has no definition in our vocabulary and is a distant thought.”

“We will develop effective, safe, quality products under one roof – from basic and clinical research to finished, final, marketed proprietary products based on indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) and our iconic traditional medicinal botanicals,” states Prof Matsabisa.     

Under the leadership of Prof Matsabisa, the department has recently also been awarded an annual Technology and Innovation Agency Platform (TIA) grant of R17 million for the next five years. This research and teaching programme, known as African Medicines Innovations and Technologies Development (AMITD), will help to recruit and employ the best skills throughout the research, development, and herbal-medicine manufacturing value chains. 

“These investments will enable the university to play a large and key role in realising the dream of a sustainable propriety ATM industry to make an impact on health and job creation.”

AMITD will act as a national training and capacity development facility in drug research and development (R&D), and the formulation and production of quality, safe, effective, and well-researched medicines.  We hope to not only train students, but also technicians, researchers, and traditional health practitioners. The facility will afford postgraduate students a unique opportunity for research development and training at this innovative platform, with world-class specialised infrastructure and IKS academic leadership. Capacity development will be strengthened through postgraduate bursaries and postdoctoral funding by the UFS. The collaboration with the private sector will further afford opportunities for research capacity development through postgraduate job opportunities and internship training at collaborating industry partners.

Prof Matsabisa, who is also leading Africa’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic after being appointed chairperson of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Regional Expert Advisory Committee on Traditional Medicines for COVID-19 last year, further states that both the laboratories – the health and the production facilities – will be state-of-the-art, with the most modern research and production equipment.

Mr Werner Nel, Director: Research Development; Dr Nico Walters, Technology Development expert consultant, and
Dr Glen Taylor, Senior Director: Research Development, were part of the ‘A-Team’ that played a role in the Department
of Pharmacology receiving a R58 million grant. (PhotoSupplied)

Platform to strengthen collaborative efforts

The university, with its commitment, proven leadership in IKS for health, extensive IKS collaborative networks across the globe, available research and pharmaceutical product development expertise, state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment and supportive research capacity development programmes, is ready and eager to host such a production facility on its Bloemfontein Campus for later growth and expansion. The production and laboratories will be ideally situated in Central South Africa, so that the facility can be accessible to all.


“We see this facility as a platform to strengthen our collaborative efforts with industry, communities, and traditional health practitioners to address their research, R&D and production needs, and strive to contribute to the local development of an African medicines-based pharmaceutical industry. The facility will also be a national asset for the training of postgraduate students and scientists in this field, with more emphasis on assisting those institutions in rural provinces,” added Prof Matsabisa. 

All of this would not have been possible without the ‘A-Team’ of Dr Glen Taylor, Senior Director: Research Development, Dr Nico Walters (expert consultant for technology development), and Mr Werner Nel (Director: Research Development), says Prof Matsabisa. 

“There are a lot of people supporting IKS directly and indirectly – from Rectorate to the Faculty of Health Sciences and the Department of Pharmacology, as well as the cleaners who ensured a clean place when the funders came for their visits, support from Pharmacology staff, students, and postdoctoral fellows. I acknowledge the unwavering support of my HOD, not forgetting colleagues and managers of other departments who also contributed to the success of this grant directly or indirectly.”

“However, in every collaboration and teamwork there are those who take the idea as theirs and ensure that they live with this idea and grow with it; I call them the A-Team,” says Prof Matsabisa. 

According to Dr Taylor, the UFS research strategy recognised the important role of IKS and African traditional medicines in the health and socio-economic fabric of our society. “Over the past five years, we have systematically built and invested in an IKS platform to become a centre of excellence, not just institutionally, but also with a national, regional, and international standing,” says Dr Taylor.

Big grant is a first 

Dr Walters says a number of government initiatives aimed at community development, job creation, scientific value addition to local products, and the utilisation of our natural resources – land and marine – have been developed. These initiatives include the IKS Act 6 of 2019, AsgiSA, Batho Pele, and the Biodiversity Initiative, aimed at the sustainable development and commercialisation of South Africa’s natural resources. 

“But never before has such a bold funding decision been made in the IKS funding sphere in the country like this one. I have been in this space of technology development and IKS development for years. This is not only the first such big grant for the UFS, but also for the country and region in terms of IKS.” 

“It was a compelling value-for-money proposal, and very difficult to shoot down with so many letters of support emanating from other universities, research councils, government departments – provincial and national – our own SAHPRA, and many other letters from the WHO, WIPO, UN bodies, including from other international universities. This is not surprising, given the recognised international scientific standing of Prof Matsabisa on all the continents. But again, more importantly, not to forget the letters of support for this facility from the pharmaceutical industry and organisations of traditional health practitioners,” says Dr Walters.   

“We would also like to acknowledge the support – through his letter of support – from our Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Francis Petersen, and the institution for the idea and proposal content,” says Prof Matsabisa. 

News Archive

Ms Oprah Winfrey to receive an honorary doctorate in Education from our university
2011-06-10

 

Ms Oprah Winfrey

Invitation to the public (PDF document)
Invitation to UFS staff and students (PDF document)
Media accreditation (PDF document)
Street closures on 23 and 24 June 2011 (Bloemfontein Campus)
Map from the Bloemfontein Airport to the UFS (PDF document)
Map of the UFS (PDF document)


For more information, please contact:

Tel: 051 401 3000
E-mail: info@ufs.ac.za

Staff and students from our Qwaqwa Campus, please contact:
Dr Elias Malete's office
 


Our university will be awarding an honorary doctorate in Education to the global media icon, philanthropist and public educator, Ms Oprah Winfrey, on its Bloemfontein Campus on Friday, 24 June 2011.

Both the Council and Senate of our university gave strong support to awarding the honorary doctorate to Ms Winfrey.

By awarding the honorary doctorate, we want to recognise Ms Winfrey’s accomplishments and unparalleled work as a global media leader, as well as a philanthropist with vision and foresight in the field of education and development.

“It is a great privilege for us to be the first South African university to honour Ms Winfrey in this way and to be able to recognise a global icon of her stature,” says Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of our university.

Ms Winfrey already holds honorary doctorates from Princeton University as well as Duke University in the United States, among others.

Reaching millions of viewers in more than 150 countries with her award-winning programme, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” she has brought genuine change into the lives of ordinary people during its 25-year run.

Capitalising on the power of the media and her standing as a global icon, Ms Oprah Winfrey has brought a range of critical social and educational matters to the attention of her viewers. In 2000, she expanded her media reach through the successful creation of O, The Oprah Magazine, which then debuted in South Africa in 2002. Earlier this year, she extended her media influence through the launch of a US cable channel, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network.

Her Book Club has had a dramatic and profound impact on the reading habits of America and those of people in other parts of the world, while her public charity, Oprah’s Angel Network, collected approximately $80 million over a period of twelve years in aid of building schools, women’s shelters and youth centres across the globe.

Through her private charity, The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, hundreds of grants have been awarded in support of empowering women, children and families, and The Oprah Winfrey Scholars Program, supports hundreds of university students, in the United States and elsewhere, who are committed to giving back and making a difference in their communities and country.

During a December 2000 visit to former president Nelson Mandela, Ms Winfrey pledged to build a school for girls in South Africa. This gift was to become the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, which opened in 2007.

The Academy embodies her strong belief in the power of education to change the future. The Academy provides a unique educational opportunity to over 400 young girls, in Grades 7 through 12, from all over South Africa. These young women come from small rural towns and the big cities, but they share a common background in that they all come from poor families.

Ms Winfrey believes that the Academy can contribute to the development of a new generation of women leaders, deeply imbued with a sense of public service. The Academy stands as a beacon of hope in the educational landscape of this country.

More recently, Ms Winfrey has turned her attention to the failing public-school system in the United States and has brought the impact thereof on the lives of many people in America to the attention of the American public and policy-makers. Even more profoundly, she has highlighted how poor education entrenches poverty and social exclusion. In this sense, Ms Winfrey demonstrates the interconnection between education struggles in the USA and South Africa in powerful ways.

Both the Interim Director of our university’s International Institute for Studies in Race, Reconciliation and Social Justice, Mr John Samuel, and Prof. Jansen have worked for and with Ms Winfrey on matters of education at her school in Johannesburg, and in South Africa more broadly.

The South African public is invited to share in this occasion, and attend the award ceremony. A limited number of tickets will be available to the public from Wednesday, 15 June 2011 to Wednesday, 22 June 2011, and can be purchased from Computicket at an administrative cost of R10 a ticket.


Media Release

11 June 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

 

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