Africa is quickly becoming a hub for virus hunting, thanks to the work of Tulio de Oliveira, a Brazilian, Portuguese, and South African expert in virology. De Oliveira played a pivotal role in confirming COVID-19 variants Beta and Omicron, as well as testing the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in South Africa. He established two major scientific institutes in the country—the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform and the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation. These institutes train the next generation of genetic experts and conduct cutting-edge genetic sequencing and analysis on a variety of disease-causing pathogens.
De Oliveira’s efforts have had a significant impact on the genomics landscape in Africa, with many current leaders of genomics labs in African countries coming from his lab. He believes that African genomics systems are now not only on par with the best in the world but are actually more advanced. In 2024, he was invited to become chief scientific officer at the U.K.’s Wellcome Sanger Institute but chose instead to focus on establishing Africa as a leading player in genomics.
To achieve this goal, de Oliveira proposed a merger between his institutes and the Wellcome Sanger Institute to combine their strengths in quickly identifying and characterizing pathogens and scaling up genetic sequencing and analysis. Together they aim 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 seeing pathogens as a global issue rather than just a national one is crucial since they do not respect borders.
Overall, de Oliveira’s work has contributed significantly to South Africa’s emergence as a hub for virus hunting and has had far-reaching implications for genomics research across Africa. His commitment to establishing Africa as a leading player in genomics is inspiring others around the world to invest more resources into this critical area of research.
