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27 September 2022 | Story André Damons | Photo Charl Devenish
Prof Martin Nyanga
Prof Martin Nyaga, Associate Professor in the UFS-NGS Unit and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre (WHO CC), says the UFS researchers – through the Division of Virology/NHLS and the UFS-NGS Unit – were involved in the major publication as part of the NGS-SA consortium from the study design phase, ethics applications, and throughout the study.
Researchers from the University of the Free State (UFS) Next Generation Sequencing (UFS-NGS) Unit and Division of Virology/ National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) were part of a major publication featuring hundreds of authors from Africa who did research on the evolution of SARS-CoV-2.

The scientific publication in the journal Science (impact factor 47.728) featured more than 300 scientists and public health officials from Africa and abroad, who worked together to look into the evolution of SARS-CoV-2, the viral agent causing COVID-19. It was the first collaborative study of this nature conducted in Africa during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The publication became available online on 15 September this year. 

According to a press release by the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI) at Stellenbosch University and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), this was the largest consortium of African scientists and public health institutions working together to support data-driven COVID-19 response in Africa. This collaboration was led by two labs (CERI and KRISP) and the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa (NGS-SA) consortium, of which the UFS-NGS Unit and Division of Virology are founding members, in close coordination with the Africa CDC, WHO/AFRO and 300 other institutions across the continent.

It is an awesome feeling

Prof Martin Nyaga, Associate Professor in the UFS-NGS Unit and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre (WHO CC), says the UFS researchers – through the Division of Virology/NHLS (coordinated by Prof Dominique Goedhals and Mr Philip Armand Bester) and also the UFS-NGS Unit (Prof Nyaga, Dr Peter Mwangi, Mr Milton Mogotsi, and Mr Emmanuel Ogunbayo) – were involved as part of the NGS-SA consortium from the study design phase, ethics applications, and throughout the study, processing the SARS-CoV-2 positive samples for whole-genome sequencing, thus generating significant sequence data of the SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in South Africa.

“It is an awesome feeling to be part of the solution in resolving the COVID-19 pandemic by providing data that would track variants in real time and data used to implement prophylactic solutions, such as vaccine development, against a virus that was a global threat,” says Prof Nyaga. 

According to him, the utility of next-generation sequencing technologies in understanding genomics of diseases was clearly demonstrated in this study and will assist in addressing future diseases/pandemics. These genomic studies provide deeper insights regarding diseases, and they will provide timely solutions to solving diseases affecting the Mother Continent.

UFS Free State variants study

Prof Nyaga says their Free State variants study, which was also recently published in the journal Frontiers in Virology, performed analysis of samples from patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 throughout all the COVID-19 waves. “We aimed to determine whether the variants driving the epidemic waves at the national level were also driving the epidemic waves at the local level, in the context of the Free State province. The data further indicates that SARS-CoV-2 variants driving the epidemic waves in the Free State at the local level correlated with the ones driving the epidemic waves at the national level. Findings from this study highlight the importance of continued genomic surveillance and monitoring of the circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants to inform public health efforts and ensure adequate control of the ongoing pandemic. 

“Our data has been incorporated into the analyses of the bigger continent-wide collaboration on genomics surveillance to determine how the majority of COVID-19 variants were introduced into Africa, which has now been published in the journal Science,” says Prof Nyaga.  
The publication highlights that sustained investment in diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa was needed to not only help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent, but to establish a platform to address the emerging, re-emerging, endemic infectious disease threats, such as Ebola, HIV/Aids, TB, malaria, and enteric disease-causing viruses.

News Archive

Launch of the Africa office of the IIDE
2006-05-25

Attending the launch of the Africa office of the IIDE were from the left Prof Sytse Strijbos (Chairperson of IIDE Europe), Rev Kiepie Jaftha (Chairperson of the IIDE in Africa’s Board of Directors and Chief Director: Community Service at the UFS) and Prof Frederick Fourie (Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS).

 

Attending the launch were from the left Prof Lucius Botes (Director: Centre of Development Support at the UFS), Dr Samuel Kareithi (Head: Community Development at the Cornerstone Christian College, Cape Town), Rev Kiepie Jaftha (Chairperson of the IIDE in Africa’s Board of Directors and Chief Director: Community Service at the UFS), Prof Sytse Strijbos (Chairperson of IIDE Europe) and Dr Ezekiel Moraka (Vice-Rector:  Student Affairs at the UFS).

Africa office of IIDE launched on UFS main campus 

The Africa office of the International Institute for Development and Ethics (IIDE) was today (26 May 2006) launched on the Main Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein.

“The IIDE specialises in the studying and research of general questions of developmental theory and practices and provides services and support in education, strategic planning, policy formulation, advocacy and capacity building of development agencies,” said Rev Kiepie Jaftha, Chairperson of the IIDE in Africa’s Board of Directors and Chief Director: Community Service at the UFS.

According to Rev Jaftha the IIDE in Africa will focus on the conceptual and normative aspects of developmental processes in Sub-Saharan Africa.  “We want to foster local and international partnerships with various relevant role-players in civil society, the private sector and public sector in the SACD region and later expand our operations to the rest of Africa,” said Rev Jaftha.

The IIDE in Africa cooperates with a similar foundation in Europe, functioning as the IIDE Europe.  This institute was founded in 2003 and its head office is situated in the Netherlands.  The UFS is a funder of the IIDE in Africa together with the Paul Foundation and private sponsors from the Netherlands.

“We have already started with various projects which are in various stages of implementation,” said Rev Jaftha.  Some of these projects include, among others, the broadening of the master’s degree in Christian Studies of Science and Society (MACSSS) which is currently housed at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam to tertiary institutions in South Africa such as the UFS, the University of Stellenbosch and the Potchefstroom Campus of the Northwest University.

“Another project is an investigation into the possibility of initiating a broad development initiative in the poverty stricken Qwaqwa area.  This initiative will attempt to concentrate on issues like the training and empowerment of prospective entrepreneurs in the region, the identification of prospective entrepreneurs for the rendering of development support and the monitoring of the impact of information and communication technology on local communities during the implementation of sustainable development initiatives,” said Rev Jaftha.

“The establishment of the Africa office of the IIDE on the UFS Main Campus is an indication of one of the aims of the UFS to play a role in South Africa and Africa.  It also signifies our aim to contribute meaningfully to research and development and to establish links between the academe and practice,” said Rev Jaftha. 

 

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:   (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
26 May 2006

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