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28 March 2023 | Story André Damons and Engela Duvenage | Photo Charl Devenish
Prof Martin Nyaga, an Associate Professor and Head of the Next Generation Sequencing (UFS-NGS) Unit at the University of the Free State (UFS), is taking a leading role in the future of genomic surveillance as a public health tool in Africa.
As chair of the Africa Centre for Communicable and Preventable Diseases (Africa CDC) working groups on Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD), Prof Martin Nyaga, an Associate Professor and Head of the Next Generation Sequencing (UFS-NGS) Unit at the University of the Free State (UFS), is taking a leading role in the future of genomic surveillance as a public health tool in Africa.

The VPD Working Group of the Africa Pathogen Genomics Initiative (Africa PGI) – a unit of the Africa CDC – is one of four such expert focus groups (malaria, foodborne diseases, and antimicrobial resistant organisms, being the focus of the others) whose insights are informing the work of the Africa PGI of the Africa CDC. Its mandate is to develop a roadmap that will enhance the use of genomic surveillance tools in the fight against VPD such as measles, polio, rotavirus, cholera, typhoid fever, malaria and Ebola.

Prof Nyaga, who is also a medical virologist, has chaired the working group since 2022. 

Combat vaccine preventable diseases

“Thirty million cases of children suffering from VPD are reported in Africa every year. Around 500 000 children still die each year because of such illnesses. The VPD working focus group is helping to combat these diseases by among other initiatives, identifying the important and priority vaccine preventable diseases use cases and identifying the key stakeholders in Africa.

“It also providing technical advice on wet- and dry-lab genomics infrastructure to track, genotype and analyse data in real time to avert the rapid transmission and spread of these diseases from human to human," says Prof Nyaga, who is also the Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborative Centre for VPD Surveillance and Pathogen Genomics in South Africa. 

According to him, in the recent past and in the post-COVID-19 pandemic peak era, there has been a rapid increase in the previously almost eradicated VPDs such as polio and measles that have recorded upsurges of more than 400-500% in some regions. At present, multiple African countries including Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Kenya and even South Africa are fighting the worst ever cholera outbreak, yet cholera is a disease that can be prevented by using vaccines. “While it is not definite to say that the roadmap will end these diseases, it will certainly utilise genomics science to expedite the tracking, diagnosis and improving existing vaccine candidates to drastically lower the burden of disease as it happened with SARS-CoV-2 tracking using genomics, where the impact was swift and effective,” he says. 

Roadmap to enhance implementation of genomics surveillance

The VPD roadmap document is expected to be finalised by the end of May 2023, to further guide the work of the Africa PGI and the Africa CDC. It will also provide a framework for individual countries, regions, funders, partners, and key stakeholders on how they can include the genomics of multi-pathogen and priority diseases and other use cases into existing policy and routine disease surveillance systems. 

Prof Nyaga says the roadmap is the expert document that the VPD focus group is working on to enhance informed implementation of genomics surveillance in Africa, coordinated by the Africa PGI of the Africa CDC.

Genomic surveillance an important public health tool

He believes genome surveillance can play an important role to track disease behaviours in Africa. This includes the introduction of new virulent or resistant variants and/or strain genotypes and understanding whether existing therapeutic solutions such as vaccines and antimicrobial drugs will work to fight them. 

“The use of genomic surveillance as an important public health tool came to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was used to screen for new variants and outbreaks, and to control and manage its spread. Researchers from Africa rose to prominence by being the first to note the Beta and Omicron variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.”

Prof Nyaga and other researchers from the UFS have also contributed valuable research and advice pertaining to government policy about COVID-19 variants in South Africa. The UFS-NGS unit is part of the NGS-SA network and has recently collaboratively published in Science, Nature and Nature Medicine about insights drawn from genomic surveillance as the SARS-CoV-2 evolved, leading to discovery of new variants and escalation of rollout of vaccines in Africa from an informed perspective. 

More countries can now do Next Generation Sequencing

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer than 10 of the 55 African Union (AU) member states could do NGS work on own soil – South Africa being one of them. Today, around 40 African countries can on a molecular level monitor the pandemic, detect, and track emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. This is among others thanks to the efforts of the Africa PGI unit, working closely with the World Health Organisation Africa Regional Office for Africa (WHO/AFRO) and other partners, to provide appropriate hardware, software, and training to countries in different regions amid the pandemic. The Africa PGI was launched in 2019, and with the outbreak of COVID-19 was ideally placed to strengthen the roll-out of genomic surveillance tools across the continent.

“It is a great honour, not just to be a member of this VPD working group, but also for being given the privilege to lead it and engage other UFS scholars and eminent African researchers to be part of it. This opportunity has placed the UFS in the continental map of providing health solutions for Africa through the mandate of the AU and Africa CDC,” says Prof Nyaga.

Among the researchers from across Africa serving on the VPD Working Group are also Dr James Ndirangu, a public health researcher and Programme Director, Division of Public Health, UFS; Dr Peter Mwangi, a postdoctoral fellow of the UFS-NGS Unit, as well as a former UFS alumnus; Dr Saheed Sabiu of the Durban University of Technology’s Department of Biotechnology and Food Science. Others are Prof Charles Muyanja (Department of Food Technology and Nutrition, Makerere University, Uganda); Dr San Emmanuel James (KRISP/CERI, South Africa); Dr Tresor Kabeya (Institut national de recherché biomedicale (INRB), Democratic Republic of Congo); Dr Sanni Osman, (Federal Medical Centre Birnin Kebbi, Nigeria); Dr Daniel Mugendi (Embu Level V Hospital, Kenya) and; Dr Aquillah Kanzi, (Africa Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASML), South Africa. From the Africa CDC PGI, the Senior Technical officer for this programme is Dr Francis Chikuse and the Programme Lead is Dr Sofonias Tessema.  

News Archive

NRF grants of millions for Kovsie professors
2013-05-20

 

Prof Martin Ntwaeaborwa (left) and Prof Bennie Viljoen
20 May 2013


Two professors received research grants from the National Research Foundation (NRF). The money will be used for the purchase of equipment to add more value to their research and take the university further in specific research fields.

Prof Martin Ntwaeaborwa from the Department of Physics has received a R10 million award, following a successful application to the National Nanotechnology Equipment Programme (NNEP) of the NRF for a high-resolution field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM) with integrated cathodoluminescence (CL) and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometers (EDS).

Prof Bennie Viljoen from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology has also been awarded R1,171 million, following a successful application to the Research Infrastructure Support Programme (RISP) for the purchase of a LECO CHN628 Series Elemental Analyser with a Sulphur add-on module.

Prof Ntwaeaborwa says the SEM-CL-EDS’ state-of-the art equipment combines three different techniques in one and it is capable of analysing a variety of materials ranging from bulk to individual nanoparticles. This combination is the first of its kind in Africa. This equipment is specifically designed for nanotechnology and can analyse particles as small as 5nm in diameter, a scale which the old tungsten SEM at the Centre of Microscopy cannot achieve.

The equipment will be used to simultaneously analyse the shapes and sizes of submicron particles, chemical composition and cathodoluminescence properties of materials. The SEM-CL-EDS is a multi-user facility and it will be used for multi- and interdisciplinary research involving physics, chemistry, materials science, life sciences and geological sciences. It will be housed at the Centre of Microscopy.
“I have no doubt that this equipment is going to give our university a great leap forward in research in the fields of electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence,” Prof Ntwaeaborwa said.

Prof Viljoen says the analyser is used to determine nitrogen, carbon/nitrogen, and carbon/hydrogen/nitrogen in organic matrices. The instrument utilises a combustion technique and provides a result within 4,5 minutes for all the elements being determined. In addition to the above, the machine also offers a sulphur add-on module which provides sulphur analysis for any element combination. The CHN 628 S module is specifically designed to determine the sulphur content in a wide variety of organic materials such as coal and fuel oils, as well as some inorganic materials such as soil, cement and limestone.

The necessity of environmental protection has stimulated the development of various methods, allowing the determination of different pollutants in the natural environment, including methods for determining inorganic nitrogen ions, carbon and sulphur. Many of the methods used so far have proven insufficiently sensitive, selective or inaccurate. The availability of the LECO analyser in a research programme on environmental pollution/ food security will facilitate accurate and rapid quantification of these elements. Ions in water, waste water, air, food products and other complex matrix samples have become a major problem and studies are showing that these pollutants are likely to cause severe declines in native plant communities and eventually food security.

“With the addition of the analyser, we will be able to identify these polluted areas, including air, water and land pollution, in an attempt to enhance food security,” Viljoen said. “Excess levels of nitrogen and phosphorous wreaking havoc on human health and food security, will be investigated.”

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