Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

Prof Martin Nyaga champions Africa’s scientific leadership at the AAS Summit in Ghana

18 August 2025 | Story Somila Nazo | Photo Supplied

Prof Martin Nyaga, one of Africa’s foremost experts in genomics and global health, recently delivered a powerful call for Africa’s leadership in global science at the African Academy of Sciences (AAS) Summit in Accra, Ghana.

As Head of the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) Unit at the University of the Free State (UFS) and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases Surveillance and Pathogen Genomics, Prof Nyaga urged the scientific community to recognise Africa not just as a participant in global research, but as a driver of innovation and change.

A summit of vision and collaboration

Themed Unpacking the Pact for the Future: Imperatives for Advancing Scientific Cooperation with Africa, the summit took place from 2 – 4 July 2025. Hosted by the AAS in partnership with the African Union, the Government of Ghana, the University of Ghana, and other global partners, the summit brought together leading scientists, policymakers, and international stakeholders to discuss Africa’s role in shaping the future of global science, research and innovation.

The event was attended by high-level dignitaries, including the President of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, and the former President of Nigeria, His Excellency Olusegun Obasanjo – a clear indication of strong political will to prioritise science, health and innovation across the continent.

Advancing Africa’s voice in global health

On 2 July 2025, Prof Nyaga delivered his keynote address, Advances, Opportunities and Priorities for Global Health in Africa. He highlighted Africa’s growing capabilities in genomics and public health, underscoring the opportunities for scientific leadership.

Following his address, he joined an expert panel with representatives from Tanzania, Ghana and Nigeria to discuss strategies for advancing scientific cooperation in global health. His contributions focused on: strengthening research collaborations; building capacity within Africa; increasing African ownership in health innovations, and enhancing the translation of research into policy and practice.

Prof Nyaga also used the platform to spotlight the work of the UFS Next Generation Sequencing (UFS-NGS) Unit. As a WHO Collaborating Centre, the unit plays a critical role in pathogen tracking, monitoring vaccine-preventable diseases, and supporting public health preparedness across Africa and beyond.

“This engagement provided an opportunity to highlight the impactful research from the UFS-NGS Unit – not only in academic publications, but in demonstrating tangible public health benefits to policy makers,” said Prof Nyaga. “It elevated the University of the Free State’s standing as a leader in genomic science, while opening new opportunities for collaboration for South Africa and the continent. Our research priorities are increasingly shaping global health and innovation agendas.”

From Ghana to the G20

The outcomes of the summit will feed into a communiqué to be presented at the 2025 G20 Summit, to be hosted by South Africa. Prof Nyaga’s thought leadership ensures that Africa’s scientific voice - and South Africa’s research priorities - will be represented at one of the world’s most influential multilateral platforms.

For more information about UFS partnerships in Africa, contact the Office for International Affairs at partnerships@ufs.ac.za.

News Archive

Plant-strengthening agent enhances natural ability of plants to survive

2015-07-27

Drought, diseases, and fungi. These are factors that farmers have no control over, and they often have to watch despondently as their crops are damaged. In addition, the practice of breeding plants in special and strictly-controlled conditions, has resulted in crops losing the chemical ability to protect themselves in nature.

Researchers in the Department of Soil, Crop, and Climate Sciences at the University of the Free State (UFS) have developed an organic agent that restores this chemical imbalance in plants. It enables the plant to build its own resistance against mild stress factors, and thus ensures increased growth and yield by the plant.

ComCat®, a plant-strengthening agent, is the result of extensive research by the German company, Agraforum AG, together with the UFS. Commercialisation was initially limited to Europe, while research was done at the UFS.

“Plants have become weak because they were grown specially and in isolation. They can’t protect themselves any longer,” says Dr Elmarie van der Watt from the department.

Dr Van der Watt says that, in nature, plants communicate by means of natural chemicals as part of their resistance mechanisms towards various stress conditions. These chemicals enable them to protect themselves against stress conditions, such as diseases and fungi (biotic conditions) or wind and droughts (abiotic conditions).

Most wild plant varieties are usually well-adapted to resist these stress factors. However, monoculture crops have lost this ability to a large extent.

The European researchers extracted these self-protection chemicals from wild plants, and made them available to the UFS for research and development.

“This important survival mechanism became dormant in monoculture crops. ComCat® wakes the plant up and says ‘Hey, you should start protecting yourself’.”

Research over the last few years has shown that the agent, applied mostly as a foliar spray, subsequently leads to better seedlings, as well as to growth, and yields enhancement of various crops. This is good news for the agricultural sector as it does not induce unwanted early vegetative growth that could jeopardise the final yield ? as happened in the past for nitrogen application at an early growth stage.

“The use of synthetic agents, such as fungicides which contain copper, are now banned. Nowadays, options for natural and organic agriculture is being investigated. This product is already widely used in Europe, but because farmers are often swamped by quacks, the South African market is still somewhat sceptical.”

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept