It is ten years since South Africans of all races voted in the election that signalled the end of apartheid. The country was reborn under the inspirational leadership of Nelson Mandela, with a new flag, national anthem and commitment to equality irrespective of skin colour.

But the euphoria did not hide the fact that South Africa faced – and still faces – considerable challenges. It is still struggling to provide its entire population with basic resources such as sanitation, running water, housing, education and healthcare. With over 5 million people infected with HIV, the highest rate of tuberculosis in the world, and malaria on its borders, health is a particularly pressing issue.

As a result, there has been a radical restructuring of government health budgets, with funding diverted from biomedical research to serve immediate public health needs. “That’s very important,” says Professor Wieland Gevers at the University of Cape Town (UCT). “We need to improve primary healthcare and to build new clinics and hospitals. But at the same time – precisely because of the huge health problems this country faces – we can’t let research slide.”

Research has also been squeezed by a gradual shift from research institutes to universities. Now, 95 per cent or more of research is carried out by university-based teaching academic staff. Furthermore, the country has a huge backlog of students who received very poor schooling and are consequently under-prepared for university study. “They’re very talented and ambitious,” says Professor Gevers, “but they don’t have the tools they need to succeed. This means academics have to spend more time teaching and, again, research has to take a back seat.”

While spending the necessary time giving talented students the education they need will pay dividends in the future, scientists have struggled to find the time, money and facilities within South Africa to conduct world-class research.

In 1994, South Africa’s first year of democracy, the Wellcome Trust extended its International Senior Research Fellowship (ISRF) scheme to include South Africa. ISRFs provide five years of support to enable outstanding postdoctoral scientists to establish a full-time research career.

To date, 12 fellowships have been awarded, and according to Professor Gevers their impact has been far greater than this number would suggest. “The Wellcome Trust ISRF scheme has become the wedge in the door,” he says. “It has brought to South Africa some outstanding researchers who would never have dreamt of coming here otherwise (see box) – and re-opened an agenda that was almost closed. It has shown the South African government that world-class scientists, who are full of ideas and passionate about their work, need to have the space, the laboratories, and the funds to work at the very highest level.

“And when they are given that, they don’t emigrate to the UK or the USA. They’re very happy to stay and work here. These Wellcome Trust fellows are setting up state-of-the-art research laboratories, training young South African PhDs and postdocs, and growing an internationally competitive scientific activity. That has made policy makers here look up and take note.”

Cape Town

Of the 12 Wellcome Trust fellows, eight have worked at UCT, including six current fellows. This, says Professor Gevers, has both an upside and a downside. “Other universities in South Africa have got very gifted, driven scientists, and it would have been good to see the benefits of this scheme more evenly spread,” says Professor Gevers. “On the other hand, because eight of the exceptionally competitive candidates selected by the international selection committee came from UCT, there were enough international fellows in one place to really make a difference.”

One important difference has been the establishment of a new Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM) at UCT. The new IIDMM comprises newly built laboratory space, and houses 25 outstanding research leaders in HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria and their teams – including the Wellcome Trust fellows. It is linked to a transgenic mouse facility built with Wellcome Trust support.

Professor Gevers, the IIDMM’s Interim Director, is adamant that its formation was possible only because of the ISRF scheme. “I can say quite categorically that this institute – one of the largest institutes devoted entirely to biomedical research in the whole continent of Africa – would not have existed without the ISRF scheme. The university saw it as something sustainable and was willing to support it because we already had that critical mass of Wellcome Trust ISRFs. Most importantly of all, the Wellcome Trust scheme showed the university the importance of creating institute-like working conditions for people – and has led to what I believe will be the rebirth of institute-based research.”

Benefits

The institute is now attracting other renowned researchers from overseas. “One of these, Dr Robert Wilkinson, a British TB researcher from Imperial College, is coming here for five years with his entire team, because he knows he’ll be able to work at the same level he could work at in Imperial College. At the same time, he’ll be right on the spot, where TB is endemic.”

There are other knock-on effects. The prestige of the awards means that holders are well-placed to attract further funding from other organisations. Dr Girish Kotwal, for example, was recently short-listed for further funding from the Cape Biotech Trust. He believes that the scientific infrastructure in the institute makes a big difference in such applications.

Another important benefit of the scheme has been the opportunity to network with ISRFs in other countries, sharing ideas and resources. Following a trip to India, Dr Kotwal is planning to collaborate with Wellcome Trust fellows at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad. “They have a very good proteomics facility with spare capacity in mega-DNA sequencing,” he says. “Since we can’t afford that expensive, heavy-duty equipment at UCT, we’re planning to send our samples to CCMB for analysis and collaborate intellectually on the results.

“Dr Alwin Sahu, fellow at the Cell Research Centre in Pune, wanted to create a repository of human cells but lacked the resources he needed. So I brought some over from the USA, grew them in my lab for him, then took them over to India. I handed them to him at Pune airport.”

In Professor Gevers’s opinion, this aspect of the ISRFs is invaluable. “These people are an elite, they all know each other, they can link up with each other, ask each other favours and so on. It really is a fantastic collegium of top scientists. For people here the ISRF is the absolute acme: there’s no other award in biomedical research that ranks anywhere near that in this country. People aspire to become an ISRF.”