The University of Cape Town (UCT) is leading a £4.4 million (about R101 million) four-year Pan-African research programme to bring advanced microscopy and machine learning to researchers studying infectious diseases.
Funded by the Wellcome Trust, UCT’s openScopes AIDDiA (Advancing Infectious Disease Discovery Research in Africa) programme will combine high-resolution imaging, artificial intelligence (AI) and specialised training to investigate tuberculosis (TB), malaria, Buruli ulcer and other diseases.
The programme brings together UCT, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Uganda, the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques (CSRS) in Côte d’Ivoire and Imperial College London.
It officially launched at UCT’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) during a project kick-off meeting from 7 to 11 September.
Dr Caron Jacobs, who co-leads the consortium with Professor Digby Warner, both from UCT’s IDM, says the programme will bring advanced research tools closer to scientists working in countries most affected by infectious diseases.
“The diseases we’re working on – TB, malaria, Buruli ulcer and others – are most prevalent where the tools to study them are hardest to come by,” notes Jacobs.
“And the questions we care about, such as how these pathogens survive and resist treatment, call for imaging that reveals how the infection actually works. Putting that imaging in researchers’ hands, where the patients are, means the scientists closest to these diseases can lead the discovery.”
According to UCT, machine learning will be used to process and analyse the large amounts of imagery produced by the microscopes.
Researchers will examine pathogens at the single-cell level, including drug-resistant TB bacteria, to better understand how they respond to treatment.
Dr William Wasswa, who leads the project’s image-analysis and machine-learning work at MUST, points out the AI systems are being developed alongside the imaging technology.
“A microscope captures an image, but the discovery happens afterwards, in how the data is handled and analysed. So, we are building both the pipelines to manage the data, and the machine-learning tools to make sense of it into openScopes AIDDiA from the start,” explains Wasswa.
Openly effective
The programme will develop two open-source microscopy platforms: travellerScopes and microbeScopes.
The mobile travellerScopes will move between research sites, while microbeScopes will be installed at four African partner institutions and adapted to their research needs.
The modular systems are designed to be repaired, upgraded and modified locally, reducing reliance on overseas suppliers.
The project will also develop training materials in English and French to build technical skills among researchers across anglophone and francophone Africa.
The technology is being designed for conditions that can affect African research facilities, including unreliable electricity, limited cold storage and restricted access to imported laboratory reagents.
Each African partner will focus on diseases of local importance. UCT will study TB, CSRS will focus on Buruli ulcer, MUST will investigate malaria and KEMRI will work on neglected and emerging infections.
Researchers will share tools, methods and data across the network.
At UCT and KEMRI, high-containment imaging facilities will allow scientists to study live, highly-infectious pathogens on site.
According to a 2024 World Health Organisation report cited by the programme, the diseases targeted account for more than 292 million cases and 1.7 million deaths globally, with more than 90% of cases occurring in Africa.
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