About Us

Inqaba Biotechnical Industries (Pty) Ltd is a private South African genomics company founded in 2002. The name is Xhosa for "rare and precious", accentuating our South African origin. inqaba biotec was initiated by scientists and we pride ourselves on having a genuine and sincere understanding of molecular scientists needs.

Our head office and laboratories are based in Pretoria, South Africa. In 10 years our team has grown from three to 20 full time and three part-time staff, including seven laboratory technicians. The production of oligos and sequencing service is performed entirely in-house

Transforming Africa’s biosciences… we’re spreading our wings into the African continent. We have agents in Windhoek, Harare, and Kampala servicing Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda and Kenya.

Company Mission:

Recent developments have provided basic and applied life scientists with new techniques to analyse and make use of genetic information. This opened the field for new approaches in drug development, diagnostics and other research fields.

In order to increase efficiency of genetic research and diagnostics, there is a remarkable trend in life sciences to outsource standardized or repetitive work. As DNA analysis and synthesis services benefit from automation, miniaturization, and high throughput, they become a matter of highly specialized service laboratories all over the world.

We as the inqaba biotec team have committed ourselves to provide the best handling of genomic services to our customers in Africa. We are based in South Africa, and our in-house products include DNA synthesis and DNA analysis services. We pride ourselves in their high quality, our prompt delivery and our sound prices. We are also distributors of leading international manufacturers of reagents for life sciences as well as instruments and software. These partnerships are founded upon a shared philosophy of good science, high quality, and excellent service.

The inqaba biotec team:

Our Directors:

Dr Oliver Preisig

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 characterization 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.

Dr Joaquim de Gama

Dr de Gama describes himself as a serial entrepreneur and was a founding member of the inqaba venture team. He holds a Ph.D in law and has a proven track record in business administration and project management.

Our Administration Team:

Vani Govender heading our efficient admin team is assisted by Mandikudza Mashanyare and Melvin Mathabe. They are highly motivated and always ready to assist in any manner.

The Administration Team

Our Marketing and Sales Team:

Mr Christiaan Labuschagne (Pretoria region)
Mrs Henriette van der Zwan (Animal Genetics division manager and North-West province)
Mr Jeremiah Matogo (Managing Director of inqaba biotec East Africa, Kenyan office)
Mr Juan Gijzelaar (Johanesburg and the Cape (Eastern and Western Cape))
Mrs Reratilwe (Rati) Ramaloko (Pretoria, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal).

Our sales team recently met with Seegene in Korea

Our Laboratory Team:

Dr Arshad Ismail (GS Technology Platform Manager) runs our highly successful GS High-throughput sequencer, while Christiaan Labuschagne, our Production Manager is responsible for both our busy ABI 3130XL sequencing lab and oligonucleotide synthesis lab. He runs the labs together with Stella Madibana (sequencing lab) and Boitumelo Mpete (oligonucleotide lab).

Dr Hamilton Ganesan is our in-house bioinformaticist and is willing to assist with any data analysis needs.

Present in Nigeria as well ...

Inqaba biotec's history:

2001:

A few scientists from South Africa, USA, Germany and Switzerland established Inqaba Biotechnical Industries (Pty) Ltd, a proudly South Africa Genomics company situated in Pretoria, Gauteng.

2002:

Inqaba Biotechnical Industries (Pty) Ltd, trading as inqaba biotec starts operation in August.

2003:

inqaba biotec starts to distribute Fermentas Life Science products.

2005:

inqaba biotec takes on three more distributorships: Lucigen, NanoDrop Technologies and Clare Chemicals Research.
At the end of 2005 BioPAD (www.biopad.org.za) a biotechnology investment trust funded by the Department of Science and Technology of South Africa, joins in as a shareholder and strategic partner.

2006:

inqaba biotec starts to distribute MiVac products.

2007:

18 May, inqaba biotec launches the Genome sequencing service offered using the GS 20, then later the GS FLX from Roche as part of an infrastructure investment by BioPAD. inqaba biotec enters a partnership with CLC bio and brings a new bioinformatics solution to Africa.

2008:

PolyPlus Transfection is added to inqaba biotec’s distributed products portfolio.
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome sequencing consortium is formed.
This project, funded by the Department of Science and Technology of South Africa, includes the Chris Hani Baragwaneth business unit of the NHLS, the Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit at the University of the Witwatersrand, inqaba biotec and CLC bio.
inqaba biotec starts distributing SeeGene diagnostic and research products and Lab901 automated gel electrophoresis systems.

2009:

Mirus Bio is added to the increasing range of inqaba biotec's distributed products.
The new GS FLX Titanium kit is released by Roche, generating 500MB per run with read lengths of ~450 bp.