UCT leads R95m African research programme to tackle deadly infectious diseases - TimesLIVE

African scientists studying some of the continent’s deadliest infectious diseases will gain access to advanced imaging technology that could unlock new insights into how pathogens such as tuberculosis (TB) survive and resist treatment.

The University of Cape Town (UCT) is leading a four-year, pan-African research programme worth about R95m that will put sophisticated microscopy tools directly into the hands of scientists studying TB, malaria, Buruli ulcer, and other infectious diseases.

The openScopes Advancing Infectious Disease Discovery Research in Africa programme (AIDDiA), funded by the Wellcome Trust, will combine advanced microscopy, machine learning and specialised training to strengthen infectious disease research on the continent.

TB will provide one of the programme’s first major tests.

South Africa remains one of the countries with a high burden of TB. According to TB HIV Care, the country records an estimated 249,000 new TB cases and 54,000 deaths each year.

In the Western Cape, more than 17,100 people started TB treatment within seven days of diagnosis between April and August this year. The provincial health department said more than 205,600 TB tests were conducted during the first five months of the 2026/27 financial year.

Under the new programme, researchers in countries including South Africa and Kenya will use the imaging technology to study drug-resistant TB directly in patient samples.

By examining mycobacteria at the single-cell level and within host tissues, scientists hope to gain a better understanding of how the pathogen responds to treatment and immune pressures, knowledge that could help improve approaches to combating the disease.

According to a 2024 World Health Organisation report cited by the programme, the infectious diseases targeted account for more than 292-million cases and 1.7-million deaths globally, with more than 90% of cases occurring in Africa.

Yet scientists working on these diseases often have limited access to advanced imaging equipment and the expertise required to use it.

Commercial microscopy systems can be costly and difficult to maintain. This means researchers may collect samples locally but have to send them elsewhere for sophisticated analysis, slowing research and limiting the development of local scientific capacity.

openScopes AIDDiA aims to address this by establishing a network of microscopes that can be built, maintained and repaired locally, allowing African researchers to examine pathogens in greater detail without relying on laboratories outside the continent.

The five-country consortium brings together UCT, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda, the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire, and Imperial College London.

It is the only project in the latest Wellcome Bioimaging Technology Development Awards funding round to be led from outside the UK.

Dr Caron Jacobs, who co-leads the consortium with Prof Digby Warner, both from UCT’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, said the project was designed around diseases that disproportionately affect communities where sophisticated research tools are often least accessible.

“We are working on TB, malaria, Buruli ulcer and others, which are the diseases that are most prevalent where the tools to study them are hardest to come by,” Jacobs said.

“And the questions we care about, such as how these pathogens survive and resist treatment, call for imaging that reveals how the infection actually works. Putting that imaging in researchers’ hands, where the patients are, means the scientists closest to these diseases can lead the discovery.”

The programme will develop and deploy two open-source microscopy platforms.

Mobile “travellerScopes”, developed through collaboration between researchers at UCT’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine and its Faculty of Engineering & the Built Environment, will move between research sites, extending access to advanced imaging beyond major national research centres.

More sophisticated and customised “microbeScopes” will be installed at four African partner sites and adapted to local research priorities. Because the instruments are modular and open source, researchers will be able to repair and upgrade them locally rather than depending on overseas manufacturers.

Viv Goossens, research manager for Discovery Research at Wellcome, said the project stood out in a highly competitive funding round.

“OpenScopes AIDDiA stands out for its multi-pronged approach and the strength of an international team, which will address challenges faced by researchers across Africa,” Goossens said.