The continent's first genomics centre paves the way for Afrocentric medicine

Professor Glenda Gray, president of the SAMRC

As a developing nation, South Africa seeks to build a more sustainable, locally powered healthcare environment and utilise available financial and human resources more effectively to reduce the burden of disease and improve the nation’s health.

Diverse gene pool

Knowledge of the DNA sequence has become a crucial part of understanding and responding to disease. By establishing the sequence of an individual’s genetic material, it is possible to identify mutations which are specific to each person. Having sight of these sequences helps in recognising the cause or stage of a disease, or the risk of future disease. It also helps to predict the likely benefits or side-effects of a particular medication.

This is relevant because many medicines were developed outside Africa, having been researched on study populations with a different gene pool. Yet, the African population – with South Africans in particular – shows a large amount of genetic diversity. Hence medicines may seem less effective, especially in case of lifestyle diseases such as cardiovascular conditions, diabetes and cancer.

The centre will also enable South African scientists to overcome limitations in local bioinformatics capacity. This is a big data initiative that requires robust ability to work with huge sets of data to create and sustain bioinformatics pipelines and local databases on population genetics.

Partnership agreement

In addition, the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) has cemented its collaboration with the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) through the signing of a formal agreement that guarantees an exciting future for this state-of-the-art research facility.

BGI is at the forefront of the global scientific progress on genetic science and DNA sequencing, while South Africa has identified an opportunity, through this partnership, to build the country’s capacity for whole human genome sequencing.

“The development propels South Africa into a new era of medical research and means that we join a small, but growing, group of countries that are pioneering this type of innovation,” says Professor Glenda Gray, president of the SAMRC.

National asset

“This novel field of research harnesses the science of genomics for personalised medicine. Knowledge of the DNA sequence has become an important part of understanding disease. By establishing the sequence of an individual’s genetic material, it is possible to identify mutations which are specific to that person. These genetic tools will help us understand South Africa’s diverse gene pool and convey insights on treatments for common diseases like diabetes," she says.

The centre will be a vital national asset, able to contribute to the better understanding of factors that impact on the health of South Africans and inform strategies to improve their response to diseases. This means that conditions that contribute to our heavy burden of disease in the country - such as hypertension, stroke, heart disease, diabetes and cancer – can be diagnosed faster and more accurately, and treatments delivered in a more targeted, effective and cost-efficient way.

The dedicated African Genomics Centre builds on South Africa’s previous participation in the Human Heredity and Health in Africa initiative.