Cape Town, South Africa: Leaders and scientists in the African laboratory medicine said that they are working to make genomic sequencing and surveillance agents of the continent’s transformation in the area of diagnostics and laboratory medicine.
Africa’s laboratory medicine leaders and top experts who were approached by the African Demystifier indicated that the globally emerging “precision medicine” requires the application and usage of genomic data to help provide the right treatments and Africa should embrace genomic sequencing to advance and ensure quality diagnostic services of the continent.
Genomic Sequencing On ASLM’s Agenda
The leaders affirmed their commitment to the advancement of genomics during a press briefing held at the 6th biennial conference of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) underway with the theme: “21st Century Laboratory Medicine Practice in Africa: then, now and future”, in Cape Town, South Africa, 12th to 15th December 2023.
CEO of ASLM Mr. Ndlovu Nqobile claims that Genomic sequencing is a vital and powerful instrument in the field of laboratory medicine: “Genomic sequencing is a very powerful tool that you use to identify pathogens or the organisms that are causing an outbreak.”
“It is really about testing an organism through identifying its genes, its DNA. Because that is unique to every organism. That is how powerful it is. That’s why as Africa it has become important because Africa has the largest burden of infectious diseases. Some of them are still new,” Nqobile has explained.
He further elaborated : “It is very specific and very accurate. That’s why it is this powerful. It is a test that is a little bit complicated. But just to make it simple, it is one of the powerful ways of testing and actually confirming any particular pathogen that you can have.
According to the CEO, Genomic sequencing is now very important in the laboratory science because in addition to identifying the pathogen, it is useful to tell where a DNA comes from, the origins can be tracked. “It gives you so much information and even when the pathogen begins to change, because over time the pathogen changes.”
COVID19 And Lessons In Genomic Sequencing
“When they [DNAs] change, sometimes they can cause serious infections. For example, we had COVID, then it changed to Omicron. For you to be able to tell that it is changing, you need this genomic testing.”
Nqobile recalled that COVID19 was a new thing and said that COVID would not be identified if genomic sequencing was not used.
“So as a continent, we need this capacity because previously we used to send our samples outside the continent because they have these powerful machines, these powerful testing technologies. We didn’t have it. But we are saying moving forward, we need that capacity in Africa.” The CEO underscores.
Pathogenomics is the tool that can identify any unknown organism that can come in the continent, Nqobile.
Dr. John N. Nkengasong, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and Special Representative for Health Diplomacy/PEPFAR/ also says that Africa needs to be a leader in genomic surveillance because emerging diseases threaten Africa’s development trajectory, its future medicine should be precision and and it needs to fuel its leadership in medical innovation.
Dr. Nkengasong has also delineated that the future of Africa’s laboratory medicine would be determined by factors of genomic surveillance and Artificial Intelligence (AI) related to data culture, regulatory standards, adoption of local solutions, funding and infrastructure.
Engaging The Private Sector
Illumina Company Senior Director Marketing, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa Mr. Tom Berkovits after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ASLM to work together told African Demystifier that genomics has been critical in the African laboratory medicine setting.
“I think genomics is important. It has been important, right the way through. But the technology for a long time was quite complicated and quite expensive. But what COVID showed was that we needed to build capacity in Africa.” Mr. Berkovits said.
“We need to build capacity in Southeast Asia and in Latin America, we couldn’t just rely on the expertise that existed in the US or in Europe or other places. So genomics has become much more important because of the understanding that was gained through COVID.Genomics was used to track the virus, and even now we use genomics to track viruses as they change.”
“And as they mutate, there are now new vaccines that are just being made available. So there was one that was just FDA approved for chikungunya virus the other day. If the virus mutates, sometimes those mutations result in the virus being able to escape or evade the vaccine.”
“And so we need to constantly monitor what is happening with patients to be able to make sure that the treatments that we are providing them are being given with efficacy so that patients continue to gain from the therapies.”
Jacqueline Karachi , head of regional marketing of the QIAGEN company also says that her company is engaged in molecular diagnostics and life science, which is mostly in research and academia.
“ We have a lot of pride in the solutions that we’ve been able to provide across these two disciplines. We were instrumental, for example, in the last three years during the COVID-19 pandemic with our solutions for extraction. We supported a lot of global and national programs with extractions for COVID. But we’re also very big in research, in Oncology and in genomics.”
Jacqueline says that QIAGEN’s solutions for extraction, genomics and the like, can work not only in human, but also for animal and for soil. “ We do a lot of work on waste water testing. This broad portfolio allows us to play in very many different areas of science.”
“We are active in the space of forensics and human identification through our HID business. We offer solutions though our Verogen business to address this segment” she explains.
In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) launched a network of laboratories to reinforce genome sequencing of the severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, in Africa.
A DNA molecule is a polymer consisting of two long chains bound together and coiled in a helix. The chains are made of repeating segments, called nucleotides or bases, and labelled A, T, C, and G. The connections between the two chains are made through hydrogen bonds between complementary base pairs, A with T and C with G.
A particular arrangement of the nucleotides contains genetic instructions for the growth, functioning, and reproduction of all living organisms.
The variations of the code account for all diversity of life forms on Earth and endless distinctions of the members of a given species. No two humans are exactly the same, a fact known in forensic science where evidence based on the DNA is one of the strongest against a perpetrator.
Ordering of nucleotides in the DNA – the DNA code – has become an essential analytical and diagnostic tool in numerous areas of biology, medicine, evolution, forensics, virology, and more.