UNILORIN records breakthroughs in biotech innovation, genomics

IN its efforts to maintain its rising profile as a leading global centre of academic excellence, the University of Ilorin has, again, recorded a significant breakthrough in biotechnological innovation, with the development of a ‘Two-way Trans-illuminator Viewing Documentation System’ by its Institute of Molecular Science and Biotechnology (IMSB).

The institute has also added 19 novel biofloculating bacterial strains to the world’s genomic bank, otherwise known as the National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), United States of America.

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The Director of the institute, Professor Matthew Olatunji Kolawole, who disclosed this in his 2018 annual report, said the instrument has been tested and confirmed to be very functional and effective in providing wider surface area for larger genetic material (DNA/RNA) samples with significant qualities that will address multifarious human needs in the field of medical bio-technology.

The report disclosed that the discovery would facilitate the much-needed “portability, affordability, low voltage consumption, on-site view of standard DNA marker and two sources of illumination for better result presentations and recording with a third battery-operated LED light” that will help in improving health-care delivery.

Professor Kolawole explained that the serendipity had since been filed for patents at the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) through the university’s Centre for Laboratory to Product (LABTOP).

“The importance of this discovery might not be fully appreciated until we juxtapose it with the water needs of Nigeria. According to UNICEF, over 70 million people are without potable water in Nigeria, with Nigeria requiring $8 billion per annum to provide potable water for its citizens.

“The discovery of these strains and local production of water treatment composite materials which IMSB has been pioneering in the last one year moves us closer to solving the massive shortage of potable water. These outstanding feats have further reiterated the institute’s goals of contribution to the genomic bank,” Professor Kolawole said.

Other scientific breakthroughs attained by the UNILORIN in 2018, according to Kolawole, are the “Isolation, Molecular Identification and Evaluation of Bioflocculant-producing Bacteria from Oyun, Asa and Agba Rivers in Ilorn, which proffers a wide range of indigenous bacteria with flocculants-producing potential and explore ways to improve their bio-flocculating activities,” and Corona virus OC43 and OC229 E/NL63 discovered for the first time in Nigeria as a cause of respiratory tract illness in children.