University of Cape Town’s H3D Centre Receives R5.5 million grant from the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) towards state-of-the-art equipment to support critical research infrastructure
25 July 2024, Cape Town, South Africa: The University of Cape Town Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Centre (H3D), has received an equipment grant in the amount of R5.5 million from the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), and entity of the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation. This significant investment will contribute towards the procurement of a triple quadrupole LC-MS/MS mass spectrometer, the Sciex 5500 QTRAP. This critical equipment will be used in the H3D Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) facility. DMPK is a core discipline in drug development that considers how the human body will breakdown a potential future medicine and how much of it remains in the body and for how long. This new LC-MS/MS will join the H3D suite of 3 mass spectrometers and contribute to increased research capacity for the centre. Notably, the platform is one of the few in Sub-Saharan Africa with the expertise to run these assays and integrate the results in drug discovery programs and has therefore been key in attracting the broad variety of collaborators within the H3D drug discovery portfolio.
H3D, a critical stakeholder in the South African Bioeconomy, is a TIA platform and has been receiving foundational platform funding from TIA for the past 12 years. H3D’s continued growth and development supports the South African government’s objectives in many ways by seeding an innovative pharmaceutical industry, creating jobs, attracting foreign investment, and producing highly trained scientists while creating new knowledge products to address the major African health challenges.
‘We are immensely grateful to TIA for their continued support and belief in our vision to be a leading organization for integrated drug discovery and development and to discover and develop innovative, lifesaving medicines for infectious diseases’ said Dr Susan Winks, H3D’s Head of Research Operations and Business Development
The AI2050 Senior Fellowship - an initiative of Schmidt Sciences - awarded to the Director of H3D, Prof Kelly Chibale, in Oct 2023, provided catalytic co-funding towards the new LC-MS/MS. This fellowship will develop and deploy a set of innovative open-source artificial intelligence (AI) models that can be utilized to accelerate drug discovery in Africa.
"We are thrilled to receive this funding from the Technology Innovation Agency, which will enable us to strengthen and increase our drug discovery research and accelerate the delivery of optimized leads and clinical candidates for infectious diseases. We are equally grateful to Schmidt Sciences for their support and recognition of our work through the AI2050 Senior Fellowship," said Prof Chibale.
“TIA is committed to supporting the H3D Centre to acquire requisite capabilities to meet the innovation goals of the country. The H3D Centre is at the forefront of drug discovery and development in Africa, therefore TIA will continue to support such efforts whenever possible” said Mr Mohohlo Molatudi, Head: Technology Platforms at TIA.
Since its inception in 2010 the H3D Centre’s mission has been to create and increase capacity for building and retaining skilled African scientists within pharmaceutical research and development (R&D) on the continent. In that time H3D has focused on discovering and developing innovative, life-saving medicines for infectious diseases; building Africa-specific models to contribute to improving treatment outcomes in African patients; developing drug discovery platform technologies and training African scientists in drug discovery-related sciences.
About H3D Centre
Founded and led by Professor Kelly Chibale, H3D is focused on developing technology platforms that allow customization of medicines to African patients’ needs and discovering medicines for diseases that predominantly affect African populations. H3D is place where African scientists can utilize their scientific skills and education to improve the health of African patients and to educate the next generation of African pharmaceutical scientists. As the first and only centre of its kind on the African continent with world-class infrastructure, H3D undertakes drug discovery underpinned by the integration of chemistry, biology, and pharmacology, including drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK).
For more information, please visit: http://www.h3d.uct.ac.za/
About the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA):
TIA is a national government entity that serves as the key institutional intervention to bridge the innovation chasm (mainly through financial support) between research and development from higher education institutions, science councils, public entities, and private sector, and commercialisation. TIA supports various institutions through the TIA Technology Platforms Programme aimed at funding and supporting the establishment and operations of technology platforms across the country. These TIA platforms facilitate access to key state-of-the-art infrastructure and expertise in targeted technology areas thereby lowering the barriers for others to innovate.
For more information, please visit: https://www.tia.org.za/
About Schmidt Sciences:
AI2050 is an initiative at Schmidt Sciences grounded in the following motivating question:
It’s 2050. AI has turned out to be hugely beneficial to society. What happened? What are the most important problems we solved and the opportunities and possibilities we realized to ensure this outcome?
The initiative aims to answer this question primarily by making awards to support work conducted by individuals from across the globe and at various stages in their careers. Eric and Wendy Schmidt have committed $125 million over five years to the initiative; Eric Schmidt and James Manyika are co-chairs of the initiative.
For more information, please visit: https://ai2050.schmidtsciences.org/
Article written by Dr Susan Winks, H3D Head of Research Operations and Business Development