South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is taking a leading role in the use of genetic science and technology to address important health issues in Africa. This was pointed out by CSIR Bioengineering and Integrated Genomics Group researcher Dimakatso Gumede at a media briefing late last month to mark Woman’s Month.

The populations of Africa have a greater genetics diversity than the populations of any other continent. But most pharmaceuticals are developed in Western countries and tested on less genetically diverse Western populations.

Research has indicated that this can reduce the effectiveness of drugs when they are administered to African populations. The CSIR researchers are working towards determining the effectiveness of medication for major conditions such as HIV, breast cancer and others on African populations. This will, in due course, allow appropriate doses of, or modifications to, the drugs to be determined for effective use in Africa.

This research is made possible by the genetics technologies at the disposal of the CSIR. The most important of these are stem cell technology and gene editing.

Critically important is the CSIR’s ability to create and ‘reprogramme’ stem cells, which are cells that can become any other type of cell. They are found in embryos. But researchers in Japan found a way to derive stem cells from the skin and blood cells of adults.

These adult cells are subject to processing to ‘revert’ to being stem cells. “That has really opened up the science of stem cell biology,” highlighted Gumede.

These stem cells can then be reprogrammed to become other cells. “We are able to make brain cells in a dish,” she reported. “We are also able to make blood cells in a dish.” Included are also heart cells and liver cells. (Another research focus area for the group is liver toxicity in African populations.)

With these manufactured cells, the CSIR team can then do further research. “We can actually edit the blood cells infected with HIV in the dish.”