Our partners: Dr Genevieve Thompson from Gene Vantage

Founder and Head of Research and Development at Gene Vantage, Genevieve Thompson on starting a pioneering business, her plant background and the importance of local manufacturing.

Your shift from agriculture to human diagnostics. It's quite the leap from academics to self-employed maverick thinker. How did you engineer the pivot from plant pathology at the Agricultural Research Council to developing clinical, SAHPRA-licensed diagnostic kits for human health?

Molecular biology does not belong to any single discipline; extraction, PCR and sequencing underpin medical diagnostics, food security, criminal forensics and academic research. That transferability made the science obvious to transfer, building a business around it was a different challenge. What I could not have planned was the timing: I had resigned from a permanent research position a few months before COVID hit, and found myself developing viral RNA extraction kits during the largest diagnostic mobilisation of our lifetime. That experience forced the shift from good laboratory science into controlled manufacturing: quality systems, traceability, validation and the regulatory rigour required for SAHPRA-compliant products. Gene Vantage brings that combination to laboratories — scientifically grounded products, manufactured locally, with practical support close to the client.

Africa and the consumables supply chain – why has it taken us so long to get the hang of local manufacturing?

Africa’s manufacturing gap is not a talent problem; it is an ecosystem problem. What struck me in India was how deliberately biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturing are treated as economic infrastructure, with bioparks driving investment, jobs, exports, innovation and GDP growth. South Africa has the same raw ingredients: strong scientists, real clinical need, entrepreneurial capacity and regional demand. The opportunity now is to connect those pieces with urgency and intent, so that African laboratories are not only consumers of imported technology, but are supported by internationally benchmarked products built closer to home.

The automation imperative in Africa. Gene Vantage has developed a strong portfolio of automated magnetic bead kits for high-throughput platforms. What role does diagnostic automation play in the future of disease surveillance across Africa, where resources and skilled technician time are often limited?

Automation will be essential for effective disease surveillance in Africa, but only if it creates capacity rather than dependency. High-throughput systems can reduce hands-on time, improve consistency and allow laboratories to process far more samples with limited staff, which matters for outbreaks, public health screening and food security. The risk is that many systems are closed: laboratories buy the instrument, then become locked into one supplier’s reagents, plastics, pricing and supply chain. Gene Vantage has deliberately built its automated magnetic bead portfolio around flexible, open platforms, because African laboratories need workflows they can afford, adapt and sustain. The real opportunity is not simply to own automated instruments, but to build resilient testing capacity around them, because there is a major difference between owning automation and being empowered by it.

What do you see as the biggest hurdle for biotech innovation on the continent, and how is Gene Vantage overcoming it?

The biggest hurdle is the gap between invention and implementation. Africa has scientific talent, clinical need and disease burden, but innovation only matters when it becomes a reliable product that laboratories can trust, procure, validate and use. That requires more than good science: it requires manufacturing discipline, regulatory systems, commercial viability, supply-chain resilience and market confidence. Gene Vantage is one example of that translation in practice — turning molecular biology expertise into locally manufactured, internationally benchmarked products that help reduce dependency and give laboratories credible options closer to home.

The relationship with Celtic is new. But an important one?  

Good partnerships are not about product overlap; they are about problem overlap. What became clear early in the Celtic conversations is that their clients need practical workflow solutions built around their actual laboratory constraints, not just another catalogue item. Celtic brings trusted relationships and diagnostic-market insight; Gene Vantage brings local manufacturing, technical depth and the flexibility to adapt workflows to real laboratory conditions. For clients, that means internationally benchmarked products, faster local access and direct technical support, delivered through a partner they already trust.