We have institutions to undertake high-level biological research, but lack the funding
October 13, 2005 Edition 1
Wilmot James
For all the talk about biotech-nology, democratic South Africa has not invested in high-level biological sciences nor joined the global genome projects in the way that Cuba, India, Brazil, Nigeria and China in the developing world have, writes Wilmot James.
Puzzling, for this is the best of times for biology, a knowledge revolution of sorts. With the genome we finally understand how life works and in its finest molecular detail, the equivalent in biology of discovering the high-level master plan for the weather or the universe.
What we find in insight takes our breath away, for new discoveries about viral, plant, animal, human and other life, all built around different configurations of deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA, accumulate day after day.
With this knowledge we can do a range of innovative things, some good, some bad, some where we do not know in advance whether it is good or bad, for this is frontier science.
We can modify plants in ways that the older generation of plant breeders could only dream of. Our repertoire of edible plants - from wheat to barley to rice to maize - is a result of genetic manipulation by crossbreeding experiments under-taken by human beings about 10 000 years ago.
Today we can experiment on the level of the gene and drive agricultural production to new levels. Though we must scrutinise genetically modified crops for ill effects, we should do it on a case-by-case factual basis and not succumb to some generalised hysteria.
We understand much better how animals get sick from viruses, bacteria and parasites and therefore can develop molecular veterinary medicine to deal with these more effectively. In a continent where we lose up to a quarter of our cattle annually to disease, the difference new medical interventions make to our food supplies, gross national product and exports is promising.
We used to lead in this area at Onderstepoort, the veterinary school linked to the University of Pretoria, and some original and pathbreaking work is still done there, but we are losing ground rapidly to the rising international institutes of Kenya.
The more the merrier, you might say. But Onderstepoort is badly under-funded, which is why the recent discovery there of what causes heartwater disease among animals did not get to the next step of innovation quickly enough.
We also understand much better how human disease works, including the killers of Africa - malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, though there are many others. A molecular understanding of disease leads to the era of molecular medicine, genetic screening and early diagnosis of diseases like cancer, as well as more advanced forms of gene therapy.
The science of finding proper interventions has not been figured out, particularly for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis. We need more money, brains and laboratory time for that enterprise.
The commercial pharmaceutical industry has the resources to invest in high-level research but shies away because there is no market for the products once they appear. Basically, the people of the south do not have the money to pay.
Universities have difficulty in undertaking goal-oriented research - such as finding vaccines for HIV. South African universities have also been under-investing in basic science research by having to - sensibly - balance their books, but with no special mega-science grants to draw on, to the detriment of the broader intellectual enterprise.
The Medical Research Council has not benefited from fresh
inflows of significant monies for gene research, to build on the enterprising first steps of its former president Malegapuru Makgoba when he established genomics institutes with some universities.
As a result, we have been unable to join the global haplotype mapping project - the so-called HapMap Project that Nigeria and China have, for example, joined - which seeks to establish a more comprehensive database of human variation in genetically inherited diseases and disease susceptibilities and which, on the basis of the results could lead to the development of a much more effective, comprehensive and modern health-care system.
We have the institutions to undertake high-level biological research (think of UCT's Institute for Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine or IIDMM, for example, and there are others) but lack the proper investments that must, under the circumstances, come directly from government.
In a recent draft document written by President Thabo Mbeki, Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena and Public Enterprises Minister Alec Erwin (The Challenges Facing Higher Education in South Africa, June 1, 2005) they ask appropriately whether there "are areas of science that we should be focusing on", whether "we are inspiring our faculties and providing them with the opportunity to combine research with excellence in teaching" and how to "organise the national research effort" to do the things we need to do.
Though the paper underestimates our universities' ability to undertake foundation science research, it is refreshing to see how engaged our senior politicians are with the issues. They promise emergency funding immediately and long-term funding for foundational research in the sciences and humanities that would take us into the modern world of the discovery science of biology.
l James is Chief Executive of the Africa Genome Education Institute and Honorary Professor in UCT's Division of Human Genetics.
