University of Cape Town leads African infectious disease research programme — TimesLIVE
The University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa is leading the four-year, pan-African openScopes AIDDiA research programme, worth about 95 million rand. It is intended to provide scientists with advanced microscopy technologies to study tuberculosis, malaria, Buruli ulcer and other infectious diseases, TimesLIVE reports.
The openScopes Advancing Infectious Disease Discovery Research in Africa programme is funded by the Wellcome Trust. It will combine advanced microscopy, machine learning and specialised training to strengthen infectious disease research on the continent.
Tuberculosis research
One of the programme's first main tasks will be to study drug-resistant tuberculosis directly in patient samples in South Africa and Kenya. Researchers plan to analyse mycobacteria at the level of individual cells and in body tissues to determine how the pathogen responds to treatment and immune pressure.
According to TB HIV Care, South Africa records an estimated 249,000 new tuberculosis cases and 54,000 deaths from the disease each year. In the Western Cape province, more than 17,100 people began treatment within seven days of diagnosis between April and August 2026. During the first five months of the 2026/27 financial year, more than 205,600 tuberculosis tests were conducted in the province.
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Open microscopy platforms
Two open microscopy platforms will be developed and deployed as part of the project. Mobile travellerScopes will move between research sites, while more sophisticated microbeScopes will be installed at four African partner institutions. The modular design and open-source code are intended to allow local specialists to repair and upgrade the equipment without relying on foreign manufacturers.
The consortium also includes the Kenya Medical Research Institute, Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda, the Swiss Centre for Scientific Research in Côte d’Ivoire, and Imperial College London. It is the only project in the new round of Wellcome Bioimaging Technology Development Awards led by an institution outside the United Kingdom.
According to a 2024 World Health Organization report cited by the programme, the infectious diseases selected for research cause more than 292 million cases of illness and 1.7 million deaths worldwide. More than 90% of cases occur in Africa.
