We have been invited to give a keynote speech in the International Virus Bioinformatics Meeting (IVBM) 2020, Bern, Switzerland. IVBM 2020 is jointly organized by the European Virus Bioinformatics Center, the University of Bern and the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics.

This month, we focus on the art & science output of KRISP. This month we published many manuscripts including a key papers with CAPRISA that show a significant decline in HIV incidence in young women in KZN. We also participated in a large study that track HIV incidence in 10 African countries. We have also published a manuscript on the Ethics of HIV-1 molecular research and phylogenetics and worked with Brazilian collaborators to track the dissemination of viruses outbreaks in Brazil.

The SAMRC, through its Strategic Health Innovation Partnership (SHIP) programme, is seeking to fund five highly collaborative projects in the areas of pharmacogenomics with reference to failure of treatments with drugs (or drug classes) for Non-Communicable diseases, specifically Hypertension, Cardiovascular, Diabetes and Cancer in (South) Africa. Total Budget ZAR 12-14 million, which genomics data generation should be done in a DIPLOMICS laboratory, such as KRISP, in South Africa.

KRISP is a competence centre in bioinformatics and computational biology. The group employs skilled personnel that provides infrastructure, support and technological R&D for life sciences and clinical research.

The X-metting 2019 starts with a special session of Women in Bioinformatics. KRISP is >60% women and it is very exciting to participate in this section. We will cover the tweets to highlight how women can drive in this exciting field.

KRISP is giving a keynote speech at the X-Meeting. The X-Meeting is a Brazilian event with international reach which has an average of 300 participants. The Conference is an opportunity for students, researchers and companies to interact and diffuse knowledge.

KRISP and DIPLOMCIS Talks by Prof. Tulio de Oliveira (KRISP, UKZN) - Pharmacogenomics in Precision Medicine RFA by SAMRC with DIPLOMICS: 15 million rands of funding available! Monday, 28 Oct 2019 (11:00am - 12:00), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome and Talk can be remotely attended: https://zoom.us/j/360942224

KRISP has partnered with a great photographer (Samora Chapman) to highlight the human and biodiversity life in South Africa. The photographic exhibition was curated by Tulio de Oliveira and highlight many of the genomics aspects that make us so similar and interesting at genotypic and phenotypic level.

UKZN African Health Flagship Talks by Dr. Helen Malherbe (Post-Doctoral Fellow at KRISP, UKZN) - Estimating the Burden of Congenital Disorders in South Africa: Recommendations for a Relevant Public Health Response. Wednesday, 23 Oct 2019 (11:00am - 12:00), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

KRISP has been invited to present a Phylogenetics workshop as part of the international HIV drug resistance meeting. The workshop will happen in the first day of the conference and will focus on the use of HIV-1 Pol data to identify transmission networks.

This month, we focus on the launch of we focus on KRISP launching a Biotech Incubator in Durban - BioDurban. KRISP team walkabout to Sydney to participate in the top translational program in the world: the SPARK Global program. In our newsletter, we also highlight some of our fun activities, including three travel blogs, a Photo Exhibition with a great photographer and the publication of a Open Access Book on genomics and bioinformatics for viral outbreaks.

We have published together with colleagues from FioCruz Foundation in Brazil a book on the use of genomics to control and prevent viral diseases. This book focus on some of the genomics methods and bioinformatics tools that we have developed for arboviruses (i.e. Zika, Chikungunya, Dengue and Yellow Fever).

KRISP fantastic team (Dr. Thulile Nlapo, Dr. Benjamin Chimukangara, Dr. Richard Lessells and Gugulethu Mhkize) travel to attend a very inspiring translational science program in Australia. Read these cool blogs and see their personal view on one of the best and most ethical translational science program in the world.

Once again, this three-day conference hosted at the Durban ICC did not disappoint, attracting delegates and exhibitors from over 30 African countries and beyond. Most encouraging was the collective emphasis on innovation and the need to focus Africa's efforts in harnessing the untapped resources and scientific discoveries that the continent still has to offer.

This month, we focus on the launch of KRISP Sale Brochure 2019-2020 and the launch of KRISP Business Development Unit. These two initiatives aim to provide access to high-quality, output-driven, customer-centric and cost-effective genomics services in Africa.

A ground breakin study conducted by scientist from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation & Sequencing Platform (KRISP) and the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) has given new hope to policy makers on the frontline of the fighting the disease that proves that scaling up antiretroviral therapy (ART) coverage can reduce the cases of TB.

This month at the SASBi newsletter KRISP at UKZN is featured as a key organization that is reversing brain drain in Africa and achieving scientific excellence! The newsletter also highlights Genomics Africa, our initiative with DIPLOMICS, the SASBi student council updates and some of the wild-cats' scientists (Yumna Moosa, San Emmanuel James and Upasana Ramphal) at KRISP. This is the coolest part of the newsletter and we really encourage you to read it...

This month, we focused our newsletter we focus on the launch of Genomics Africa, a KRISP & DIPLOMICS initiative to provide access to high-quality, output-driven, customer-centric and cost-effective genomics services in Africa . In our newsletter, we highlight the Genomics Africa activities on Human Genomes, Animals & Plants and Pathogens & Microbes. We want to challenge the status quo and allow the genomics revolution to benefit Africa.

KRISP & African Health Flagship Talk by Prof. Frank Slack, Shields Warren Mallinckrodt Professor & Director of the Institute for RNA Medicine, BIDMC, Harvard University, USA, Tuesday, 30 July 2019 (11:00am - 12:00), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

Durban SPARK Innovation Breakfast presentation by Prof. Collen Masimirembwa, President and Chief Scientific Officer: African Institute of Biomedical Science & Technology, Tuesday, 30 July 2019(7:30am - 8:30), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

In order to showcase our services and promote collaboration and we are doing road shows at two other UKZN campus in July. We will be at the Westville campus (29-30 July) and at the Pietermaritzburg Campus (30-31 July).

Hackatron to code Opentrons pipetting robots for DNA amplicons and libraries for Sanger, Illumina & ONT Minion sequencing. Opentrons are open-source pipetting robots for biologists. Flexible, accessible & affordable lab robots allow life scientists to do more science & less pipetting. Programming of the robots use python language. Protocols are coded as open-source and available for the community.

Diabetes is a growing problem in South Africa, but South African Indians are at three times the risk of other race groups. What is more, Diabetes and Ischaemic Heart disease occur at least a decade younger in Indians than in other populations in South Africa. Both these diseases are the leading cause of death within the Indian population. Apart from poor diet and exercise there is a genetic component that leads to increased disease risk.

KRISP, FioCruz, Brazilian Ministry of Health, the Pan American Organization and research centres from UK (Oxford, Birmingham and Edinburgh) established a network for real-time genomic surveillance.

KRISP, Applied Biosystems and Thermo Fisher Scientific collaborate to bring Africa one step closer to realizing the 90-90-90 target by introducing a rapid, reliable, and cost-effective HIV-1 genotyping service in Africa. As part of the introduction, we are running a promotion of ZAR800 (US$ 55) per genotyping test (Jul-Dec 2019). Test can be done in plasma or DBS samples, turn-around time is seven working days.

This month, we focused our newsletter on KRISP on the road. We are criss-crossing the country to showcase our new DNA sequencing and bioinformatics capacity. . In the newsletter, we also cover our high-throughput Sanger and Illumina sequencing services, arapid, reliable and cost effective HIV-1 Drug Resistance Service in Africa and many of our publications on viral outbreaks, mental health and industrial biotechnology.

We recently produced open access phylogenetic typing tools to classify Arboviruses, including Dengue, Zika, Chikungunya and Yellow Fever Virus. These tools are been widely used by the scientific community and were published in Science (2018) and PLoS NTD (2019).

Durban SPARK Innovation Breakfast presentation by Professor Michael Wallach, KRISP Director SPARK Sydney and Regional Director of SPARK Oceania, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Thursday, 27 June 2019(7:30am - 8:30), K-RITH building, Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa. All welcome!

UKZN African Health Flagship, KRISP, DIPLOMICS & Thermo Education Program on Capillary Electrophoresis (i.e. Sanger Sequencing. . Thermo-KRISP Lab, Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa, 27-28 June 2019. Training is open to University Post-Graduate Students & Technical Staff of Commercial and Academic laboratories. Scholarships available to previously disadvantaged South African learners.

UKZN African Health Flagship, KRISP, DIPLOMICS & Thermo Education Program on Capillary Electrophoresis (i.e. Sanger Sequencing) . Thermo-KRISP Lab, Nelson Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN, Durban, South Africa, 24-25 June 2019. Training is open to University Post-Graduate Students & Technical Staff of Commercial and Academic laboratories. Scholarships available to previously disadvantaged South African learners.