A multi-million rand laboratory for HIV and tuberculosis (TB) research was launched in Pretoria on Friday by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The controlled access laboratory was designed to minimise the infection of researchers as they developed new medicines and ways to diagnose the diseases, CSIR spokesman Tendani Tsedu said in a statement.
The state-of-the-art laboratory was opened Dr Phil Mjwara, director general of the science and technology department which funded the facility through an infrastructure grant.
The laboratory would enable affordable, effective therapeutics and non-invasive point-of-care diagnostics for HIV/Aids and TB, said CSIR chief executive officer Dr Sibusiso Sibisi.
It would be accessible to national and international collaborators.
Tsedu said their research would include the development of medications from South African indigenous plants. - (Sapa, April 2010)