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inqaba biotec's executive director Dr Oliver Preisig was born in 1968 close to Zurich in Switzerland. He obtained his doctoral degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich in 1995. His doctoral research in the group of Prof. Hauke Hennecke focused on the genetic and biochemical characterisation of a novel terminal oxidase of the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Bradyrhizobium japonicum. He furthered his expertise in molecular biology, first as a postdoc and later as a senior researcher in the group of Prof. Michael Wingfield at the University of the Free State (1995-1997) and FABI at the University of Pretoria (1998-2002). During this time, he characterised several dsRNA viruses in tree pathogenic fungi and supervised M.Sc. and Ph.D. students.
In 2002, Dr Preisig co-founded Inqaba Biotechnical Industries (Pty) Ltd., the first genomic service company in South Africa. The company, based in Sunnyside Pretoria, started with a staff of four. In five years the team has grown to eleven full time staff members, several part-time staff members and internship students. Inqaba biotec's original services were the production of oligonucleotides and DNA sequencing service, which was supplemented with the Fermentas Life Science, Lucigen and Nanodrop Technologies distributorships. As the company has grown inqaba biotec has added several different services including Gene Synthesis, DNA extraction, PCR amplification, PCR cloning, RNAi synthesis and Phylogenetic analysis. inqaba biotec is also a partner in the BioPAD supported Microarray Platform Project hosted by the ACGT's microarray facility. The dynamic distributorship portfolio has also increased with the addition of Clare Chemicals Research, MiVac, Zymo Research and CLC Bio.
In November 2005, Dr Preisig welcomed BioPAD as a shareholder and a strategic partner. A recent highlight in the company's development was the installation of BioPAD's infrastructure investment in a high throughput DNA sequencer in February 2007. The Roche GS 20, used for Africa's first high throughput sequencing service, is available to all Life Scientists world-wide. The service was launched in March and to date has yielded an impressive 205 MB worth of sequencing data. The GS 20 is to be upgraded to the new GS FLX system in August. In addition, inqaba biotec has recently upgraded the Sanger sequencing laboratory with the purchase of a 16 capillary ABI 3130 XL sequencer.
With Dr Oliver Preisig leading the way, inqaba biotec is looking forward to a successful future together with its valuable customers: Breaking Biotec Boundaries in Africa!
Author: Chantal Drummond
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