State-of-the-art lab commissioned at UZ

Fidelis Munyoro Chief Reporter

The commissioning of a new biomolecular laboratory fully equipped with state-of-the-art equipment at the University of Zimbabwe, represents yet another milestone delivered by the Second Republic.

A remarkable ceremony was held last Thursday to mark the landmark opening of the new forensic department, Biomolecular Platform, in the faculty of Veterinary Science at the UZ.

The platform was established through the diagnostic platform for animal diseases control project (PACMAN), which is by the French Agency for Development (AFD) and co-funded by the European Union and the UZ.

The PACMAN project aims to create a Biotechnology Platform with international standards to improve the autonomy of Zimbabwe to rapidly diagnose diseases spreading in the country and strengthen the surveillance and control systems of the diseases.

The project supports Zimbabwe animal and public health strategies with the major aim being to improve the country’s capacity to manage animal diseases as French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD) endeavour to heighten the autonomy of Zimbabwe in terms of disease diagnoses and management of zoonotic diseases.

Other partners in the project are the CIRAD and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD).

UZ Vice Chancellor Professor Paul Mapfumo said the opening of the imposing biomolecular platform represented significant milestones in the Government’s mission to upgrade the institution to world class standard.

“In this biomolecular platform, we have high-tech molecular biology and serology laboratories that offer a variety of cutting-edge tests and techniques aimed at improving animal and human disease intelligence by developing the institutional capacity for detecting and characterising pathogens, diseases surveillance and production of goods and services,” he said.

The laboratories have up-to-the-minute equipment to allow handling and containment of highly infectious agents and Prof Mapfumo said the project, which is unique, would provide a service across all the Life Sciences Faculties, Government departments and the private sector.

The project is in line with the UZ’s strategic plan (2019-2025) within which the focus areas for the Faculty of Veterinary Science are, animal diseases intelligence, zoonotic diseases and food safety, veterinary pharmaceuticals, ethno medicine and vaccinology, aquatic health and apiculture and animal reproductive technologies and nutrition. Prof Mapfumo said the UZ was now in a phase of deepening scholarship consistent with the concept of the Innovation Hub and Industrial Parks under the Government’s new education philosophy enunciated by President Mnangagwa.

“As the tail of its transformation, the university is now embarking on modernising and advancing its science, technology, engineering laboratories and workshops across its Faculties and Institutes,” he said.

“The establishment of this Biomolecular Platform will, therefore, act as a booster of our efforts and speaks to the university’s vision of becoming Zimbabwe’s global centre of excellence in research, innovation and higher education training by 2035.”

Prof Mapfumo thanked France for contributing towards the university’s main flagship programmes in the area of veterinary sciences with a laboratory that will support advanced research in the SADC and globally.

France Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Laurent Chevalier applauded CIRAD and UZ for reaching the key milestone in the implementation of the PACMAN project, contributing to the capacity building in the fight against animal and zoonotic diseases.

“We are all too familiar with the epidemic diseases in our lives and economies and this requires responses aimed at containing outbreaks, as climate change has destructed the dynamics of animal diseases,” he said.

He said biotechnology was instrumental in monitoring and controlling the spread of diseases in both livestock and humans.

“In this context, establishing the biomolecular platform, which provides the state-of-the-art technologies was timely and will considerably speed up the diagnostic process and the time for responses and actions,” he said. Ambassador Chevalier was confident that the fruitful scientific partnership between the two countries will continue to grow and in the immediate and long term the Biomolecular Platform would attract other international partners.

The partnership between France and Zimbabwe, the Ambassador said, showed France and its agencies commitment to strengthen Zimbabwe’s capacity in the fight against animal and zoonotic diseases.