KRISP NEWS
A ground breakin study conducted by scientist from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation & Sequencing Platform (KRISP) and the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) has given new hope to policy makers on the frontline of the fighting the disease that proves that scaling up antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage can reduce the cases of TB.
This month at the SASBi newsletter KRISP at UKZN is featured as a key organization that is reversing brain drain in Africa and achieving scientific excellence! The newsletter also highlights Genomics Africa, our initiative with DIPLOMICS, the SASBi student council updates and some of the wild-cats' scientists (Yumna Moosa, San Emmanuel James and Upasana Ramphal) at KRISP. This is the coolest part of the newsletter and we really encourage you to read it...
This month, we focused our newsletter we focus on the launch of Genomics Africa, a KRISP & DIPLOMICS initiative to provide access to high-quality, output-driven, customer-centric and cost-effective genomics services in Africa . In our newsletter, we highlight the Genomics Africa activities on Human Genomes, Animals & Plants and Pathogens & Microbes. We want to challenge the status quo and allow the genomics revolution to benefit Africa.
In order to showcase our services and promote collaboration and we are doing road shows at two other UKZN campus in July. We will be at the Westville campus (29-30 July) and at the Pietermaritzburg Campus (30-31 July).
Durban SPARK Innovation Breakfast presentation by Prof. Collen Masimirembwa, President and Chief Scientific Officer: African Institute of Biomedical Science & Technology, Tuesday, 30 July 2019(7:30am - 8:30), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!
KRISP & African Health Flagship Talk by Prof. Frank Slack, Shields Warren Mallinckrodt Professor & Director of the Institute for RNA Medicine, BIDMC, Harvard University, USA, Tuesday, 30 July 2019 (11:00am - 12:00), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!
Hackatron to code Opentrons pipetting robots for DNA amplicons and libraries for Sanger, Illumina & ONT Minion sequencing. Opentrons are open-source pipetting robots for biologists. Flexible, accessible & affordable lab robots allow life scientists to do more science & less pipetting. Programming of the robots use python language. Protocols are coded as open-source and available for the community.
Diabetes is a growing problem in South Africa, but South African Indians are at three times the risk of other race groups. What is more, Diabetes and Ischaemic Heart disease occur at least a decade younger in Indians than in other populations in South Africa. Both these diseases are the leading cause of death within the Indian population. Apart from poor diet and exercise there is a genetic component that leads to increased disease risk.
KRISP, Applied Biosystems and Thermo Fisher Scientific collaborate to bring Africa one step closer to realizing the 90-90-90 target by introducing a rapid, reliable, and cost-effective HIV-1 genotyping service in Africa. As part of the introduction, we are running a promotion of ZAR800 (US$ 55) per genotyping test (Jul-Dec 2019). Test can be done in plasma or DBS samples, turn-around time is seven working days.
KRISP, FioCruz, Brazilian Ministry of Health, the Pan American Organization and research centres from UK (Oxford, Birmingham and Edinburgh) established a network for real-time genomic surveillance.
KRISP PAPERS
Space-time clustering of recently diagnosed tuberculosis and impact of ART scale-up: Evidence from an HIV hyper-endemic rural South African population.
Tomita A, Smith CM, Lessells RJ, Pym A, Grant AD, de Oliveira T, Tanser F
, Scientific Reports (2019), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-46455-7:.
Whole genome sequencing for drug-resistant tuberculosismanagement in South Africa: What gaps would this address andwhat are the challenges to implementation?.
Dlamini MT, Lessells R, Iketleng T, de Oliveira T, Journal of Clinical TB and Other Mycobacterial Dis (2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jctube.2019.100115:.
The clinical presentation caused by truncating CHD8 variants..
Douzgou S, Liang HW, Metcalfe K, Somarathi S, Tischkowitz M, Mohamed W, Kini U, McKee S, Yates L, Bertoli M, Lynch SA, Holder S; Deciphering Developmental Disorders Study, Banka S, Clin Genet. (2019), 96(1):72-84. doi: 10.1111/cge.13554:.
Phylodynamic analyses of Brazilian antigenic variants of infectious bursal disease virus.
de Fraga AP, Graf T, Coltro VP, Ikuta N, Fonseca ASK, Majó N, Lunge VR, Infect Genet Evol. (2019), 73:159-166. doi: 10.1016/j.meegid.2019.04.020:.
Predictors of quality of life among community psychiatric patients in a peri-urban district of Gauteng Province, South Africa..
Mapatwana D, Tomita A, Burns JK, Robertson LJ, Int J Soc Psychiatry (2019), 65(4):322-332. doi: 10.1177/0020764019842291.
Bypassing Osmotic Shock Dilemma in a Polystyrene Resin Using the Green Solvent Cyclopentyl methyl Ether (CPME): A Morphological Perspective..
Al Musaimi O, El-Faham A, Almarhoon Z, Basso A, de la Torre BG, Albericio F, Polymers (Basel) (2019), 11(5). pii: E874. doi: 10.3390/polym11050874.:.
High rate of occult hepatitis B virus infection in hemodialysis units of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Msomi N, Ndlovu K, Giandhari J, Wilkinson E, Parboosing R, Zungu S, Mlisana K, J Med Virol. (2019), doi: 10.1002/jmv.25510:.
KRISP VIDEOS
Human Genome, S5Ion Sequencing & Women in Science in Africa
By: Maryam Fish
KRISP TEAM
KRISP BLOGS
KRISP TOOLS
2019-02-12
REGA HIV Subtyping Tool V3 - Belgium Mirror
Phylogenetic tool to identify the HIV-1 subtypes and recombinants. Query sequences are analysed for recombination using bootscanning methods. The version 3 contains new CRFs (CRF01_AE to CRF47_BF).
2018-12-05
Booster: a new bootstrap method for construction of large trees
A new version of the phylogenetic bootstrap in which the presence of inferred branches in replications is measured using a gradual 'transfer' distance rather than the binary presence or absence index used in Felsenstein's original version. The resulting supports are higher and do not induce falsely supported branches.
2016-08-21
REGA HIV Subtyping Tool V3 - South African mirror
This tool is designed to use phylogenetic methods in order to identify the HIV-1 subtype of a specific sequence. The sequence is analysed for recombination using bootscanning methods. The version 3 contains new CRFs (CRF01_AE to CRF47_BF).
2016-08-20
This is the first version of the Zika typing tool, which uses phylogenetic analysis to identify the species and genotype of the virus.
2016-08-20
This is the first version of our Arbovirus typing tool for Chikungunya, Dengue, Yellow Fever and Zika
2016-08-20
ArboTyping: Chikungunya Typing Tool
This is the first version of the Chikungunya typing tool, which uses phylogenetic analysis to identify the species and genotype of the virus.