DIPLOMICS

DIPLOMICS (Distributed Platform in Omics) is funded by South Africa’s DSI

16/06/2026

This Youth Day, we asked some of the senior scientists behind DIPLOMICS what advice they would give to young people considering a career in science.

The message was clear. Curiosity is where good science begins. Not only qualifications, not just the equipment, not certainty. The willingness to ask a question and follow it somewhere unexpected is what drives discovery forward.

South Africa needs the next generation of scientists to be exactly that, curious, questioning, and unafraid to explore.

Follow us and visit diplomics.org.za to find out more about what we do.

05/06/2026

Healthy ecosystems do not fail silently.
The signs are there, in the soil microbiome, in the gene expression of stressed plants or in the population genetics of a declining species. The challenge has always been reading those signals before it is too late.

Genomics, metagenomics, transcriptomics, and environmental DNA analysis are changing that. Where traditional monitoring tells us a species is present or absent, Omics tools tell us whether populations are genetically resilient, whether microbial communities are functioning, and whether ecosystems are under stress long before visible decline sets in.

This World Environment Day, we are thinking about science as a listening tool, one that gives the environment a way to communicate what we might otherwise miss.

04/06/2026

The retina is roughly the size of a postage stamp, contains over 40 distinct cell types, and is an important tissue in transcriptomics research. Understanding which genes are active in which retinal cells - and what changes when disease sets in - is opening new frontiers in the treatment of conditions like macular degeneration, glaucoma, and retinitis pigmentosa.

This Vision Research Month, we are celebrating the role of Omics science in pushing the boundaries of what eye research can tell us.

02/06/2026

The San people knew Hoodia gordonii long before science did.

Used for generations as a survival tool in the harshest conditions on earth, bitter ghaap is now one of the most commercially sought-after succulents in the world, and one of the clearest examples of why indigenous knowledge protection matters.

This milestone adds its reference genome to the 1KSA catalogue.
Visit 1ksa.org.za to explore more of our species.

01/06/2026

30 Grade 11 learners from IkamvaYouth's Chesterville branch visited KRISP today, representing four schools in the area: Umkhumbane Secondary, Chesterville Secondary, Wiggins Secondary, and Bonela Secondary.

The day was packed. Learners heard directly from current students and researchers about their academic journeys, then got hands-on with science that connects to their Life Sciences syllabus, extracting DNA from strawberries and building their own viruses using candy.

This is exactly the kind of early exposure that changes trajectories. Getting into a research space early makes the path there feel a lot more possible.

Big thanks to the KRISP team for opening their doors and making the day count.

25/05/2026

Africa Day is a celebration of a continent that gave the world its first humans, its greatest biodiversity, and some of its most extraordinary science.

At DIPLOMICS and 1KSA, we are proud to be part of a growing movement of African researchers sequencing African species, building African genomic infrastructure, and ensuring that the science of life on this continent is told by the people who live here.
The diversity above the ground reflects the diversity within it.

There is no more important place to do this work. Happy Africa Day.

22/05/2026

One million species.
That is the current estimate of how many are at risk of extinction, according to the IPBES Global Assessment. Most people will never see the majority of them. Many have no common name. Some have no scientific name yet. The International Day for Biological Diversity is a reminder that biodiversity is not a background condition. It is the operating system that everything else runs on, including us.

At 1KSA, every species sequenced is a step toward understanding what we have, what we stand to lose, and what we can still protect.

Visit 1KSA.org.za to find out more about how we are working to support institutions like SANBI with the preservation of South Africa's biodiversity.

20/05/2026

South Africa has over 1,000 native bee species. You have probably never heard of most of them.

The honeybee gets all the credit but it's the native miners, carpenters, and sweat bees working quietly through the fynbos that hold much of this country's pollination together.

One in three mouthfuls of food exists because a bee visited a flower at the right moment. That is not a fun fact. That is infrastructure.

This World Bee Day, take a moment for the bee you have never heard of, on the flower you have never seen, doing work the world cannot afford to lose.

14/05/2026

The Blue Crane has survived alongside South Africa's farmers and communities for centuries. It nests on open ground, raises its chicks in grasslands that are increasingly under pressure, and remains one of the few large birds that has adapted, cautiously, to a changing landscape.

But adaptation has limits. A reference genome gives researchers the tools to understand those limits: where genetic diversity is holding, where it is thinning, and what that means for a species that belongs, officially and culturally, to all of us.

Explore more: https://www.1ksa.org.za/species-cards/anthropoides-paradiseus

25/04/2026

Happy World DNA Day! Every 25 April, we mark the 1953 discovery of the double helix by Watson, Crick, and Franklin, and the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003. Two milestones that changed science forever.

This year, we are marking the occasion with a launch of our own.

Introducing Ignite, our new outreach platform dedicated to making omics science accessible to the next generation of South African scientists. Through Ignite, we will be sharing exciting discoveries in genomics and proteomics, science explained in plain language, student opportunities, and highlights from our outreach activities across the country.

The future of South African science is being built right now, and we want young people to be part of it.

Want to know more about genomics in South Africa, especially school outreaches and careers? Follow us on Instagram !

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Cape Town
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