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Integrating high throughput technologies to advance genomic and proteomic research in South Africa.

The Centre for Proteomic and Genomic Research (CPGR) in Cape Town, South Africa, is a worldclass technology centre funded by the Cape Biotech Trust and PlantBio, two of the government’s premier instruments for stimulating growth of the biotech sector.The CPGR was founded in 2006 as a non-profit organisation that focuses on highthroughput integrated research in the genomic and proteomic arena. Today the CPGR runs projects in the biomedical field with relevance to diagnostics research and drug discovery in human diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria and cancers. Increasingly, the CPGR is also involved in plant biotechnology research and in food safety. The CPGR provides access to state-of-the-art technology platforms for a variety of genomic and proteomic research applications and uses these platforms in collaborations with scientists in academia and industry, both locally and worldwide. Its staff members are engaged in diverse projects, ranging from mass spectrometry-based workflows for discovering novel disease biomarkers to microarray-based studies for serum profiling and developing new diagnostic tools for malaria, HIV and tuberculosis (TB). The CPGR was established with a vision of helping to increase the South African research output and knowledge base, while becoming financially sustainable through providing services and collaborative projects. To date, scientists at the CPGR work with > 80 different researchers, groups, universities and companies, across a number of sectors. Many of the collaborative projects focus on improving diagnoses and therapies for infectious diseases, as part of the long-term aims of the CPGR to benefit the communities in South Africa. Some of the current studies include the search for new, improved, molecular diagnostic and prognostic markers of diseases such as TB, malaria, leukaemia and colorectal cancer; the search for markers of pathogen resistance in maize; an assessment of the possible health risks associated with the development of genetically modified plants; and the improvement of yeast strains for use in the wine biotechnology sector. These diverse projects are largely carried out using automated platforms for high throughput processing of microarrays and proteomics-based workflows. “We need to use automated systems to minimise our manual procedures and assay costs as far as possible, while at the same time increasing the quality of our results,” explained Dr Reinhard Hiller, Managing Director of the CPGR. “We are now fully equipped for processing almost all existing slide-based microarray formats, including genomic DNA, microRNA and protein microarrays. We have also established facilities for RT-PCRbased gene expression profiling, genotyping, and state-of-the-art mass spectrometry-based differential proteomics. In addition, we are also an Affymetrix-accredited service provider and are the only facility in Southern Africa that is trained to use all Affymetrix Genechip® products, including the Company Profile