Making genome editing a success story in Africa

    Making genome editing a success story in Africa

    Similar to other biotechnologies, genome editing faces substantial obstacles in Africa. These include regulatory uncertainty, restricted access to laboratories, equipment and reagents for molecular biology work, a shortage of trained professionals, and a low rate of returnees among the diaspora. There may be also minute investment: most nations commit less than 1% of their sinful domestic product (GDP) to research and building. The dependency of African institutions on external funding, unequal collaborations with the Global North and maintain an eye on of intellectual property and licensing by foreign entities additional hinder progress. Additionally, there are low ranges of integration of biotechnology in faculty and college curricula, inaccurate risk perceptions and apparent low ranges of public reinforce (normally because of the misinformation), and, as a consequence, inadequate political will.

    Genome editing, in contrast to more classical genetic modification approaches, promises greater accuracy, precision, efficiency and rate-effectiveness and, in flip, a larger return on investment. In handy resource-constrained environments, reducing barriers to the genetics-based innovation equipped by genome editing may enable local innovators to be more successful in sectors that are crucial for Africa’s biotechnology-based financial building. In addition, genome editing-based health merchandise — including new gene therapies — can have a notable attain on public health.

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    Acknowledgements

    The publication of this article was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation (grant 95074) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (StG TMSGI3_211391/1 to T.O.A.). We thank the Volkswagen Foundation and the International Brain Research Organisation for funding the genome-editing program of TReND in Africa, J. Wittbrodt for continuous reinforce, and I. Coche and E. Rybicki for input and discussion.

    Author information

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. International Farm animals Research Institute (ILRI), Nairobi, Kenya

      Hussein M. Abkallo

    2. Wits/SAMRC Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit, Infectious Diseases and Oncology Research Institute, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

      Patrick Arbuthnot

    3. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science and Medicine, University Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

      Thomas O. Auer

    4. TReND in Africa, Brighton, UK

      Thomas O. Auer, Vincenzo Di Donato & Lucia Prieto-Godino

    5. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI), University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

      Dave Adequate. Berger

    6. Department of Genetics, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

      Johan Burger

    7. Food Safety and Safety Focal point Area, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, North-West University, Mmabatho, South Africa

      Ereck Chakauya

    8. AUDA NEPAD Southern Africa Community for Biosciences (SANBio), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Advanced Agriculture and Food Cluster (AAF), Pretoria, South Africa

      Ereck Chakauya

    9. U1154 INSERM, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France

      Jean-Paul Concordet

    10. Institut de recherche en sciences de la santé (IRSS), Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso

      Abdoulaye Diabate

    11. ZeClinics SL. Sant Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain

      Vincenzo Di Donato

    12. Biosafety South Africa, Somerset West, South Africa

      Jan-Hendrik Groenewald

    13. African Center for Excellence in Molecular Engineering, Bamako, Mali

      Amadou Guindo

    14. Wits Research Institute for Malaria, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

      Lizette L. Koekemoer

    15. African Union Pattern Agency – NEPAD, Midrand, South Africa

      Florence Nazare

    16. Liverpool College of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, UK

      Tony Nolan & Charles Wondji

    17. Ifakara Health Institute, Ifakara, Tanzania

      Fredros Okumu

    18. College of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

      Fredros Okumu

    19. Pan-African Mosquito Association, (PAMCA), KEMRI Headquarters, Nairobi, Kenya

      Emma Orefuwa

    20. University of Ghana, Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology Department, Accra, Ghana

      Lily Paemka

    21. The Francis Crick Institute, London, UK

      Lucia Prieto-Godino

    22. Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya

      Steven Runo

    23. Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland

      Marie Sadler

    24. Bio and Emerging Technology Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

      Kassahun Tesfaye

    25. Department of Microbial, Cellular and Molecular Biology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

      Kassahun Tesfaye

    26. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nairobi, Kenya

      Leena Tripathi

    27. Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases, CRID, Yaoundé, Cameroon

      Charles Wondji

    Contributions

    M.C.S. and T.O.A. analyzed data and prepared figures. E.C., V.D.D. and T.O.A. conceived the undertaking and organized the consortium. All authors contributed to the voice and read and approved the final model of the manuscript. Authors are listed in the author listing in alphabetical explain.

    Corresponding authors

    Correspondence to
    Thomas O. Auer, Ereck Chakauya or Vincenzo Di Donato.

    Ethics declarations

    Competing interests

    V.D.D. is an employee of ZeClinics SL, offering companies and products including genome editing. ZeClinics had no influence on the voice of this article. All other authors declare no competing interests.

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    Abkallo, H.M., Arbuthnot, P., Auer, T.O. et al. Making genome editing a success story in Africa.
    Nat Biotechnol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02187-2

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02187-2

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