News release
12 April 2005

South African National Bioinformatics Institute The University of the Western Cape Private Bag X17 Bellville , South Africa 7535 +27 21 959 3645 www.sanbi.ac.za

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bellville , Western Cape

South African researchers team up with Stanford University, USA,  to use Silicon Valley technology in the fight against HIV and TB in Africa.

Top South African research institutions are to benefit from a new programme that will provide high calibre international training in biomedical informatics to future African leaders in health research at University of Western Cape, University of Cape Town and the National Institutes of Communicable Diseases.

Building on existing successes in working with Stanford University, researchers at the University of Western Cape and Stanford have developed a powerful international programme. They have won an internationally competitive grant from the Fogarty International Center that provides support for graduate African scientists to pursue cutting edge training in areas such as HIV informatics, TB drug discovery and bioinformatics. They have joined expertise of HIV biologists, epidemiologists and bioinformaticians at Stanford, the University of Western Cape South African National Bioinformatics Institute, the University of Cape Town and the National Institutes of Communicable Diseases. The programme delivers a cadre of ‘future African scientific leaders’ in biomedical informatics. Research includes HIV databasing, Pharmacogenomics and new languages for describing medical discoveries. R 4.3 M of funding comes from the Fogarty International Center and the National Human Genome Research Institute through the US National Institutes of Health over the next three years.

“I am so excited to be the first student enrolled in the global biomedical informatics programme” says Faranahz Ketwaroo, UWC masters student in bioinformatics. “I have always dreamed of working on HIV research, I never realised I would be able to trained by some of the world’s top biomedical researchers by enrolling at the University of the Western Cape”

“We now contribute globally with South African achievements in computer based health research” says Professor Win Hide, Principal Investigator of the programme in Africa, and Director of the South African National Bioinformatics Institute, “Students at UWC are enjoying working with their peers at Stanford”

”We are delighted to partner with our colleagues in Cape Town to help train South African scientists in the use of information science to fight major threats to health.” Says Dr. Russ Altman, the Director of the Stanford Biomedical Informatics (BMI) programme. Our programme focuses on training in five areas: core informatics, computer science, probability & statistics, biology & physiology, and ethical/legal/social implications of technology. “Although the BMI program has had an active distance learning program, with material delivered over the web, this program goes far beyond that in establishing personal contacts between folks at Stanford and in Cape Town.” adds Dr. Betty Cheng, an Associate Director of the program, and chief organizer of this collaborative effort.

The University of the Western Cape hosts the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI) which is the leading bioinformatics research centre in Africa, is an MRC/UWC/SANBI Unit for bioinformatics capacity development, and graduates historically disadvantaged researchers in HIV, TB and Malaria research. It is an HIV vaccine development site and is the World Health Organisation centre for training in bioinformatics technologies for the continent of Africa.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Winston Hide: SA National Bioinformatics Institute: Email: winhide@sanbi.ac.za
TELEPHONE: +27 21 959 3645
WEBSITES: stanford-sanbi.ac.za, www.sanbi.ac.za, www.uwc.ac.za, www.uct.ac.za, www. nicd.ac.za, www.saavi.org.za. www.smi.stanford.edu/academics/
www.fic.nih.gov is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.