Offered through CAPRISA DSI and NRF Centre of Excellence (CoE) in HIV Prevention The KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP), the state of the art UKZN Research Centre has opportunities for Masters and PhD students with great potential and an ambition to pursue a career in research. Successful applicants will become part of a dynamic research team and they will get hands-on experience in the generation and analysis of genomic, epidemiological and clinical data.

Urgent need for a non-discriminatory and non-stigmatizing nomenclature for monkeypox virus. Proposal would avoid references to West African and Congo strains.

Virtual conference on the lessons learned from Africa on the production of over 100,000 genomes of SARS-CoV-2. Participants from CERI, KRISP, ACEGID, NICD, Africa CDC, Pasteur Insitute Dakar.

BY JOHN NKENGASONG. Scientists in Africa have been monitoring and sequencing pathogens since long before the pandemic. The world benefited from this network when scientists including Sikhulile Moyo, laboratory director for the Botswana-­Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory, and Tulio de Oliveira, director of South Africa’s Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, identified and reported the emergence of the Omicron variant last November.

Please find CERI’s & KRISP’s newsletter May/June issue of 2022. In this issue, we feature the recent research describing how we worked with the WHO develop an early warning system for emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants and the opinion piece in The Lancet on why African science should have a central place on the world stage and needs to be recognised and supported. We congratulate Professor Tulio de Oliveira and Dr. Sikhulile Moyo on being listed in the Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2022.

We are seeking to appoint three post-doctoral fellows with great potential and ambition to become leading scientists. These positions will work with some of the best genomics and bioinformatics scientists in the world. We aim to identify both pathogen and human genomic variation that are associated with the transmission and virulence of pathogens and the development of diseases.

Abbott are offering two long-term fellowships of 12 months and 5 short-term fellowships of 2 weeks. The fellowship will cover travel, accommodation, and a daily stipend.

The VEME workshop faculty includes international leading researchers in virus evolution, molecular epidemiology, and bioinformatics. VEME has run for 26 years and it became known as one of the best workshops in the world. This year it will be presented in Panama and applicants from developing countries have priority.

Presenter: Professor Moritz Kraemer, Oxford University, Date: 25 May 2022, Locations: STIAS, Manor House Library, Wallenberg Centre, Stellenbosch or *VIRTUALLY

Presenter: Professor Rob Warren, 11 May 2022, Locations: JN De Villiers Auditorium, Clinical Building, Tygerberg Campus, University of Stellenbosch or *VIRTUALLY

A new modelling study published in the journal Nature is the first of its kind to project how global heating will increase virus swapping between species.

Vaccines and prior infection still prevent severe disease from new SARS-CoV-2 strains. Science, 10 May 2022.

BA.4 and BA.5 can easily break the immunity that was conferred by the earlier Omicron variants such as BA.1 and BA.2, says South African bioinformatics professor Tulio de Oliveira

The subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 may dodge immunity, especially in unvaccinated people, possibly causing a spike in infections worldwide.

Omicron relatives called BA.4 and BA.5 are behind a fresh wave of COVID-19 in South Africa, and could be signs of a more predictable future for SARS-CoV-2.

The spread of two newly discovered subvariants has doctors watching closely. New York Times piece on our work, 4 May 2022.

Please find CERI’s & KRISP’s newsletter. In our April/May issue of 2022, In this issue, we feature the recent research describing the novel BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron lineages in South Africa and the massive collaborative effort that provides insights on the evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa. We also highlight the New York Times article on how South Africa’s latest surge is a possible preview of the pandemic’s next chapter. We are also pleased to announce the availability of three Postdoctoral positions at CERI & KRISP and are excited to host Prof Rob Warren and Prof Moritz Kraemer at our upcoming seminar series for May.

In South Africa, a network of researchers are studying whether new lineages BA.4 and BA.5 escape immunity from COVID-19 vaccines and prior infections.

Two new sub-lineages of the Omicron variant have been detected in SA and some other countries. However, KRISP scientists say there is no cause for alarm at this stage. Known as BA.4 and BA.5, the team will continue to track their spread and study their properties. The detection of two new sub-lineages of the Omicron variant in South Africa serves as a reminder that the virus will continue to evolve and change over time.

South African scientists have discovered two new sublineages of the Omicron coronavirus variant, said Tulio de Oliveira, who runs gene-sequencing institutions in the country.

In Covid-19 history, Stellenbosch University (SU) bioinformatician Prof Tulio de Oliveira will be remembered for first detecting the Beta variant of SARS-CoV-2 in late 2020. In November 2021, a few months after moving from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) to SU's School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, he also detected the Omicron variant.

The South African Medical Research Council strongly supports excellence in health research and has established a set of medal awards to recognise world-class science. The Awards are among South Africa’s most prestigious and are dedicated to contributions to health research in South Africa.

Presenter: Prof Valerie Mizrahi, 30 March 2022, Locations: STIAS, Breakaway Room, Wallenberg Centre, University of Stellenbosch or *VIRTUALLY

The University of KwaZulu-Natal has congratulated three members of their community who received the 2022 National Batho Pele Excellence Awards (NBPEA) on Thursday evening.

Higher education is under pressure, but universities have a crucial role to play in helping society ‘build back better’ from Covid-19 and other existential challenges.

As the WHO mulls when to call the Covid pandemic over, attention is turning to the future. Last November, having alerted the world to the new and highly transmissible Omicron variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, South Africa-based scientist Tulio de Oliveira saw that country hit with travel bans.

Presenter: Professor Marlo Moller, 9 March 2022, 12:00-1:00pm Locations: JN DE Villiers Auditorium, Clinical Building, Tygerberg Campus, University of Stellenbosch or *VIRTUALLY

In our February/March issue of 2022, we focus on the visit of Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Minister of Health Dr. Joe Phaahla, Higher Education, Science and Innovation Deputy Minister Buti Manamela, the Belgian Minister of Development Cooperation, Meryame Kitirto to CERI’s new facilities at Stellenbosch University. We also highlight our selection on the Ten Breakthrough Technologies of 2022 by MIT and the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition program to identify novel pathogens and respond to prevent and /or mitigate the impact of the next pandemic

Join the next African Union and Africa CDC 2022 Lecture and Discussion Series of Omicron and other COVID-19 variants of concern –where are we now?, "A New Public Health Order in the 21st Century ", Tuesday, 1 March 2022 at 3:00 pm EAT.

Concerns that BA.2 may be more severe than the original Omicron variant have been driven by a hamster study, but real-world data suggest the sublineage isn't more virulent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).