Ramaphosa lauds SU’s world-class research centre set to lead global epidemic response

• Published date: 26 January 2022
• Publication title: Bolander

Led by Professor Tulio de Oliviera, who discovered the Beta and Omicron variants of the coronavirus, the facility aims to lead the world in its response to novel epidemic threats by supporting South Africa and dozens of other African countries to characterise and discover new pathogens

President Cyril Ramaphosa, along with the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Dr Blade Nzimande, and the biotech investor of NantAfrica (a division of NantWorks), Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong, visited the Stellenbosch University (SU) Biomedical Research Institute (BMRI) last week to view the cutting-edge facilities of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation (CERI), which will provide the genomic sequencing for the development and evaluation of vaccine therapies in South Africa. CERI is to be officially launched later this year.

The centre is envisioned to be the largest genomics facility in Africa and is headed by Professor Tulio de Oliveira, world-renowned bioinformatician and professor of bioinformatics at the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking at SU.

The visit to the centre preceded the launch of the NantSA vaccine production facilities at Brackengate, Cape Town, and the announcement of the Coalition to Accelerate Africa’s Access to Advanced Healthcare (the AAAH Coalition).

Welcoming the president’s delegation were Professors Wim de Villiers, SU rector and vice-chancellor; Kanshukan Rajaratnam, head of the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking; Elmi Muller, dean of SU’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and De Oliveira.

CERI at SU is the forerunner of a host of similar facilities at other research-focused South African universities and was established with the support of the Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation’s Pandemic Prevention Institute (PPI).

The BMRI, where CERI is located, is a large infrastructural investment of more than a billion rand by SU and the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI). It is on a par with the most advanced biomedical research facilities in the world and plans to host dozens of world-class research groups in South Africa.

Prof De Oliveira’s research is aimed at responding effectively to epidemics through pathogen genomics surveillance. This work enables enhanced biomedical discovery, improved treatment and diagnosis, and better vaccine development to prevent human disease, and has the potential to lead global research in this field and generate...