South Africa is now a leading hub for virus hunting, thanks to the efforts of Tulio de Oliveira, an expert in viruses. De Oliveira was the first to confirm the COVID-19 variants Beta and Omicron shortly after their appearance in hospitals, and he has been involved in early trials testing the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in the country. He has established two major scientific institutes in South Africa – the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform and the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation – which train the next generation of genetic experts and conduct cutting-edge genetic sequencing and analysis of disease-causing viruses.
De Oliveira’s labs have produced many of the current heads of genomics labs in African countries, and he believes that they are now more advanced than the best systems in the world. In 2024, he was offered a position as chief scientific officer at the U.K.’s Wellcome Sanger Institute but declined it, choosing instead to focus on expanding Africa’s role as a leading player in genomics by merging his two institutes with Wellcome Sanger Institute. This collaboration aims to create a more robust global system of disease tracking, with a focus on monitoring the effects of climate change on infectious diseases and human health.
De Oliveira emphasizes that pathogens do not respect borders, so it is essential to think about them as a global problem rather than just a national one. This initiative will play a crucial role in preparing
