Sunday, 17 July 2016

Sreeni Labs Private Limited, Hyderabad, India ready to deliver New, Economical, Scalable Routes to your advanced intermediates & API's in early Clinical Drug Development Stages

str1

Sreeni Labs Private Limited, Hyderabad, India is ready to take up challenging synthesis projects from your preclinical and clinical development and supply from few grams to multi-kilo quantities. Sreeni Labs has proven route scouting ability  to  design and develop innovative, cost effective, scalable routes by using readily available and inexpensive starting materials. The selected route will be further developed into a robust process and demonstrate on kilo gram scale and produce 100's of kilos of in a relatively short time.
Accelerate your early development at competitive price by taking your route selection, process development and material supply challenges (gram scale to kilogram scale) to Sreeni Labs…………

INTRODUCTION

Sreeni Labs based in Hyderabad, India is working with various global customers and solving variety of challenging synthesis problems. Their customer base ranges from USA, Canada, India and Europe. Sreeni labs Managing Director, Dr. Sreenivasa Reddy Mundla has worked at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly based in USA.
The main strength of Sreeni Labs is in the design, development of innovative and highly economical synthetic routes and development of a selected route into a robust process followed by production of quality product from 100 grams to 100s of kg scale. Sreeni Labs main motto is adding value in everything they do.
They have helped number of customers from virtual biotech, big pharma, specialty chemicals, catalog companies, and academic researchers and drug developers, solar energy researchers at universities and institutions by successfully developing highly economical and simple chemistry routes to number of products that were made either by very lengthy synthetic routes or  by using highly dangerous reagents and Suzuki coupling steps. They are able to supply materials from gram scale to multi kilo scale in a relatively short time by developing very short and efficient synthetic routes to a number of advanced intermediates, specialty chemicals, APIs and reference compounds. They also helped customers by drastically reducing number of steps, telescoping few steps into a single pot. For some projects, Sreeni Labs was able to develop simple chemistry and avoided use of palladium & expensive ligands. They always begin the project with end in the mind and design simple chemistry and also use readily available or easy to prepare starting materials in their design of synthetic routes
Over the years, Sreeni labs has successfully made a variety of products ranging from few mg to several kilogram scale. Sreeni labs has plenty of experience in making small select libraries of compounds, carbocyclic compounds like complex terpenoids, retinal derivatives, alkaloids, and heterocyclic compounds like multi substituted beta carbolines, pyridines, quinolines, quinolones, imidazoles, aminoimidazoles, quinoxalines, indoles, benzimidazoles, thiazoles, oxazoles, isoxazoles, carbazoles, benzothiazoles, azapines, benzazpines, natural and unnatural aminoacids, tetrapeptides, substituted oligomers of thiophenes and fused thiophenes, RAFT reagents, isocyanates, variety of ligands,  heteroaryl, biaryl, triaryl compounds, process impurities and metabolites.
Sreeni Labs is Looking for any potential opportunities where people need development of cost effective scalable routes followed by quick scale up to produce quality products in the pharmaceutical & specialty chemicals area. They can also take up custom synthesis and scale up of medchem analogues and building blocks.  They have flexible business model that will be in sink with customers. One can test their abilities & capabilities by giving couple of PO based (fee for service) projects.

Some of the compounds prepared by Sreeni labs;
str1str1
str1str1
str1str1
str1str1
str1str1
str1str1





See presentation below

LINK ON SLIDESHARE



Managing Director at Sreeni Labs Private Limited

Few Case Studies : Source SEEENI LABS

QUOTE.............
One virtual biotech company customer from USA, through a common friend approached Sreeni Labs and told that they are buying a tetrapeptide from Bachem on mg scale at a very high price and requested us to see if we can make 5g. We accepted the challenge and developed solution phase chemistry and delivered 6g and also the process procedures in 10 weeks time. The customer told that they are using same procedures with very minor modifications and produced the tetrapeptide ip to 100kg scale as the molecule is in Phase III.


One East coast customer in our first meeting told that they are working with 4 CROs of which two are in India and two are in China and politely asked why they should work with Sreeni Labs. We told that give us a project where your CROs failed to deliver and we will give a quote and work on it. You pay us only if we deliver and you satisfy with the data. They immediately gave us a project to make 1.5g and we delivered 2g product in 9 weeks. After receiving product and the data, the customer was extremely happy as their previous CRO couldn't deliver even a milligram in four months with 3 FTEs.


One Midwest biotech company was struggling to remove palladium from final API as they were doing a Suzuki coupling with a very expensive aryl pinacol borane and bromo pyridine derivative with an expensive ligand and relatively large amount of palldium acetate. The cost of final step catalyst, ligand and the palladium scavenging resin were making the project not viable even though the product is generating excellent data in the clinic. At this point we signed an FTE agreement with them and in four months time, we were able to design and develop a non suzuki route based on acid base chemistry and made 15g of API and compared the analytical data and purity with the Suzuki route API. This solved all three problems and the customer was very pleased with the outcome.


One big pharma customer from east coast, wrote a structure of chemical intermediate on a paper napkin in our first meeting and asked us to see if we can make it. We told that we can make it and in less than 3 weeks time we made a gram sample and shared the analytical data. The customer was very pleased and asked us to make 500g. We delivered in 4 weeks and in the next three months we supplied 25kg of the same product.


Through a common friend reference, a European customer from a an academic institute, sent us an email requesting us to quote for 20mg of a compound with compound number mentioned in J. med. chem. paper. It is a polycyclic compound with four contiguous stereogenic centers.  We gave a quote and delivered 35 mg of product with full analytical data which was more pure than the published in literature. Later on we made 8g and 6g of the same product.


One West coast customer approached us through a common friend's reference and told that they need to improve the chemistry of an advanced intermediate for their next campaign. At that time they are planning to make 15kg of that intermediate and purchased 50kg of starting raw material for $250,000. They also put five FTEs at a CRO  for 5 months to optimize the remaining 5 steps wherein they are using LAH, Sodium azide,  palladium catalyst and a column chromatography. We requested the customer not to purchase the 50kg raw material, and offered that we will make the 15kg for the price of raw material through a new route  in less than three months time. You pay us only after we deliver 15 kg material. The customer didn't want to take a chance with their timeline as they didn't work with us before but requested us to develop the chemistry. In 7 weeks time, we developed a very simple four step route for their advanced intermediate and made 50g. We used very inexpensive and readily available starting material. Our route gave three solid intermediates and completely eliminated chromatographic purifications.


One of my former colleague introduced an academic group in midwest and brought us a medchem project requiring synthesis of 65 challenging polyene compounds on 100mg scale. We designed synthetic routes and successfully prepared 60 compounds in a 15 month time.  
UNQUOTE............

The man behind Seeni labs is Dr. Sreenivasa Reddy Mundla 
Sreenivasa Reddy

Dr. Sreenivasa Reddy Mundla

Managing Director at Sreeni Labs Private Limited
Sreeni Labs Private Limited
Road No:12, Plot No:24,25,26
  • IDA, Nacharam
    Hyderabad, 500076
    Telangana State, India
Links
Dr. Sreenivasa Mundla Reddy
Dr. M. Sreenivasa Reddy obtained Ph.D from University of Hyderabad under the direction Prof Professor Goverdhan Mehta in 1992. From 1992-1994, he was a post doctoral fellow at University of Wisconsin in Professor Jame Cook's lab. From 1994 to 2000,  worked at Chemical process R&D at Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals (P&G). From 2001 to 2007 worked at Global Chemical Process R&D at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. 
In 2007  resigned to his  job and founded Sreeni Labs based in Hyderabad, Telangana, India  and started working with various global customers and solving various challenging synthesis problems. 
The main strength of Sreeni Labs is in the design, development of a novel chemical route and its development into a robust process followed by production of quality product from 100 grams to 100's of kg scale.
 
They have helped number of customers by successfully developing highly economical simple chemistry routes to number of products that were made by Suzuki coupling. they are able to shorten the route by drastically reducing number of steps, avoiding use of palladium & expensive ligands. they always use readily available or easy to prepare starting materials in their design of synthetic routes.
Sreeni Labs is Looking for any potential opportunities where people need development of cost effective scalable routes followed by quick scale up to produce quality products in the pharmaceutical & specialty chemicals area. They have flexible business model that will be in sink with customers. One can test their abilities & capabilities by giving PO based projects

Experience



Founder & Managing Director

Sreeni Labs Private Limited
August 2007 – Present (8 years 11 months)
Sreeni Labs Profile
Sreeni Labs Profile
View On SlideShare


Principal Research Scientist

Eli Lilly and Company
March 2001 – August 2007 (6 years 6 months)




Senior Research Scientist

Procter & Gamble
July 1994 – February 2001 (6 years 8 months)

Education


University of Hyderabad

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), 
1986 – 1992

PUBLICATIONS
Aug 2010 · ChemInform
Apr 2008 · Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
Feb 2008 · ChemInform
Nov 2007 · Tetrahedron
Apr 2006 · Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
Aug 2003 · Tetrahedron Letters
Nov 2000 · ChemInform
Read at
[LINK]


Patents by Inventor Dr. Sreenivasa Reddy Mundla
  • Patent number: 7872020
    Abstract: The present invention provides crystalline 2-(6-methyl-pyridin-2-yl)-3-[6-amido-quinolin-4-yl)-5,6-dihydro -4H-pyrrolo[1,2-b]pyrazole monohydrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2011
    Assignee: Eli Lilly and Company
    Inventor: Sreenivasa Reddy Mundla
  • Publication number: 20100120854
    Abstract: The present invention provides crystalline 2-(6-methyl-pyridin-2-yl)-3-[6-amido-quinolin-4-yl)-5,6-dihydro-4H-pyrrolo[1,2-b]pyrazole monohydrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2006
    Publication date: May 13, 2010
    Applicant: ELI LILLY AND COMPANY
    Inventor: Sreenivasa Reddy Mundla
  • Patent number: 6066740
    Abstract: The present invention provides a process for making 2-amino-2-imidazoline, guanidine, and 2-amino-3,4,5,6-tetrahydroyrimidine derivatives by preparing the corresponding activated 2-thio-subsituted-2-derivative in a two-step, one-pot procedure and by further reacting yields this isolated derivative with the appropriate amine or its salts in the presence of a proton source. The present process allows for the preparation of 2-amino-2-imidazolines, quanidines, and 2-amino-3,4,5,6-tetrahydropyrimidines under reaction conditions that eliminate the need for lengthy, costly, or multiple low yielding steps, and highly toxic reactants. This process allows for improved yields and product purity and provides additional synthetic flexibility.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 25, 1997
    Date of Patent: May 23, 2000
    Assignee: The Procter & Gamble Company
    Inventors: Michael Selden Godlewski, Sean Rees Klopfenstein, Sreenivasa Reddy Mundla, William Lee Seibel, Randy Stuart Muth
TGF-β inhibitors
US 7872020 B2
The present invention provides 2-(6-methyl-pyridin-2-yl)-3-[6-amido-quinolin-4-yl) -5,6-dihydro-4H-pyrrolo[1,2-b]pyrazole monohydrate, i.e., Formula I.
Figure US07872020-20110118-C00002
EXAMPLE 1 Preparation of 2-(6-methyl-pyridin-2-yl)-3-[6-amido-quinolin-4-yl-5,6-dihydro-4H -pyrrolo[1,2-b]pyrazole monohydrate
Figure US07872020-20110118-C00008
Galunisertib
1H NMR (CDCl3): δ=9.0 ppm (d, 4.4 Hz, 1H); 8.23-8.19 ppm (m, 2H); 8.315 ppm (dd, 1.9 Hz, 8.9 Hz, 1H); 7.455 ppm (d, 4.4 Hz, 1H); 7.364 ppm (t, 7.7 Hz, 1H); 7.086 ppm (d, 8.0 Hz, 1H); 6.969 ppm (d, 7.7 Hz, 1H); 6.022 ppm (m, 1H); 5.497 ppm (m, 1H); 4.419 ppm (t, 7.3 Hz, 2H); 2.999 ppm (m, 2H); 2.770 ppm (p, 7.2 Hz, 7.4 Hz, 2H); 2.306 ppm (s, 3H); 1.817 ppm (m, 2H). MS ES+: 370.2; Exact: 369.16
ABOVE MOLECULE IS
Galunisertib
Phase III
LY-2157299
CAS No.700874-72-2


READ MY PRESENTATION ON
Accelerating Generic Approvals, see how you can accelerate your drug development programme

Accelerating Generic Approvals by Dr Anthony Crasto





KEYWORDS   Sreenivasa Mundla Reddy, Managing Director, Sreeni Labs Private Limited, Hyderabad, Telangana, India,  new, economical, scalable routes, early clinical drug development stages, Custom synthesis, custom manufacturing, drug discovery, PHASE 1, PHASE 2, PHASE 3,  API, drugs, medicines

Monday, 20 June 2016

UCT Drug Discovery and Development Centre, H3D, pioneers world-class drug discovery in Africa.

H3D

UCT’s H3D is a center of excellence for research and innovation with an already strong track record in malaria drug  discovery. The vision of H3D is to be the leading organization for integrated drug discovery and development on the African continent.

ABOUT H3D

H3D is Africa’s first integrated drug discovery and development centre. The Centre was founded at the University of Cape Town in April 2011 and pioneers world-class drug discovery in Africa.

Our Vision

To be the leading organisation for integrated drug discovery and development from Africa, addressing global unmet medical needs.

Our Mission

To discover and develop innovative medicines for unmet medical needs on the African continent and beyond, by performing state-of-the-art research and development and bridging the gap between basic science and clinical studies.
We embrace partnerships with local and international governments, pharmaceutical companies, academia, and the private sector, as well as not-for-profit and philanthropic organisations, while  training scientists to be world experts in the field.
The H3D collaboration with the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) focuses on delivering potential agents against malaria that will be affordable and safe to use. In line with the global aim to eradicate malaria, projects are pursued that not only eliminates blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax infection, but also acts against liver stages and blocks transmission of the infection. The projects embrace multidisciplinary activities to optimise hit compounds from screening libraries through the drug discovery pipeline and deliver clinical candidates.
Merck Serono Announces Recipients of the Second Annual €1 Million Grant for Multiple Sclerosis Innovation
Darmstadt, Germany, September 12, 2014 – Merck Serono, the biopharmaceutical division of Merck, today announced the recipients of the second annual Grant for Multiple Sclerosis Innovation (GMSI) at MS Boston 2014, the joint meeting of the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in MS (ACTRIMS) and European Committee for Treatment and Research in MS (ECTRIMS), taking place September 10-13 in Boston, U.S.A.
Merck signed a research agreement with the University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa, to co-develop a new R&D platform. It aims at identifying new lead programs for potential treatments against malaria, with the potential to expand it to other tropical diseases. It combines Merck’s R&D expertise and the drug discovery capabilities of the UCT Drug Discovery and Development Centre, H3D.
UCT’s H3D is a center of excellence for research and innovation with an already strong track record in malaria drug  discovery. The vision of H3D is to be the leading organization for integrated drug discovery and development on the African continent. They say that working with partners like Merck is critical to build up a comprehensive pipeline to tackle malaria and related infectious diseases.

Journal Publications:

  1. Aminopyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines as potential inhibitors of Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Structure activity relationships and ADME characterization C. Soares de Melo, T-S. Feng, R. van der Westhuyzen, R.K. Gessner, L. Street, G. Morgans, D. Warner, A. Moosa, K. Naran, N. Lawrence, H. Boshoff, C. Barry, C. Harris, R. Gordon, K. Chibale. Biorg. Med. Chem. 2015, 23, 7240-7250.
  2. A Novel Pyrazolopyridine with in Vivo Activity in Plasmodium berghei- and Plasmodium falciparum- Infected Mouse Models from Structure−Activity Relationship Studies around the Core of Recently Identified Antimalarial Imidazopyridazines. C. Le Manach, T. Paquet, C. Brunschwig, M. Njoroge, Z. Han, D. Gonzàlez Cabrera, S. Bashyam, R. Dhinakaran, D. Taylor, J. Reader, M. Botha, A. Churchyard, S. Lauterbach, T. Coetzer, L-M. Birkholtz, S. Meister, E. Winzeler, D. Waterson, M. Witty, S. Wittlin, M-B. Jiménez-Díaz, M. Santos Martínez, S. Ferrer, I. Angulo-Barturen, L. Street, and K. Chibale, J. Med. Chem. 2015, XX, XXXX
  3. Structure−Activity Relationship Studies of Orally Active Antimalarial 2,4-Diamino-thienopyrimidines. D. Gonzàlez Cabrera, F. Douelle, C. Le Manach, Z. Han, T. Paquet, D. Taylor, M. Njoroge, N. Lawrence, L. Wiesner, D. Waterson, M. Witty, S. Wittlin, L. Street and K. Chibale. J Med Chem. 2015, 58, 7572-7579.
  4. Medicinal Chemistry Optimization of Antiplasmodial Imidazopyridazine Hits from High Throughput Screening of a SoftFocus Kinase Library: Part 2. Le Manach, T. Paquet, D. Gonzalez Cabrera, Y. Younis, D. Taylor, L. Wiesner, N. Lawrence, S. Schwager, D. Waterson, M.J. Witty, S. Wittlin, L. Street, and K. Chibale. J. Med. Chem. 2014, 57, 8839−8848.
  5. Medicinal Chemistry Optimization of Antiplasmodial Imidazopyridazine Hits from High Throughput Screening of a SoftFocus Kinase Library: Part 1. Le Manach, D. González Cabrera, F. Douelle, A.T. Nchinda, Y. Younis, D. Taylor, L. Wiesner, K. White, E. Ryan, C. March, S. Duffy, V. Avery, D. Waterson, M. J. Witty, S. Wittlin; S. Charman, L. Street, and K. Chibale. J. Med. Chem. 2014, 57, 2789-2798.
  6. 2,4-Diamino-thienopyrimidines as Orally Active Antimalarial Agents. D. González Cabrera, C. Le Manach, F. Douelle, Y. Younis, T.-S. Feng, T. Paquet, A.T. Nchinda, L.J. Street, D. Taylor, C. de Kock, L. Wiesner, S. Duffy, K.L. White, K.M. Zabiulla, Y. Sambandan, S. Bashyam, D. Waterson, M.J. Witty, A. Charman, V.M. Avery, S. Wittlin, and K. Chibale. J. Med. Chem. 2014,57, 1014-1022.
  7. Effects of a domain-selective ACE inhibitor in a mouse model of chronic angiotensin II-dependent hypertension. Burger, T.L. Reudelhuber, A. Mahajan, K. Chibale,E.D. Sturrock, R.M. Touyz. Clin. Sci. (Lond). 2014, 127(1), 57-63.
  8. Pharmacokinetic evaluation of lisinopril-tryptophan, a novel C-domain ACE inhibitor. Denti, S.K. Sharp, W.L. Kröger, S.L. Schwager, A. Mahajan, M. Njoroge, L. Gibhard, I. Smit, K. Chibale, L. Wiesner, E.D. Sturrock, N.H. Davies. Eur. J. Pharm. Sci.2014, 56, 113-119.
  9. Fragment-based design for the development of N-domain-selective angiotensin-1-converting enzyme inhibitors. R.G. Douglas, R.K. Sharma, G. Masuyer, L. Lubbe, I. Zamora, K.R. Acharya, K. Chibale, E.D. Sturrock. Sci. (Lond). 2014, 126(4),305-313.
  10. Fast in vitro methods to determine the speed of action and the stage-specificity of anti-malarials in Plasmodium falciparum. Le Manach, C. Scheurer, S. Sax, S. Schleiferböck, D. González Cabrera, Y. Younis, T. Paquet, L. Street, P.J. Smith, X. Ding, D. Waterson, M.J. Witty, D. Leroy, K. Chibale and S. Wittlin*. Malaria Journal, 2013, 12, 424.
  11. Structure-Activity-Relationship Studies Around the 2-Amino Group and Pyridine Core of Antimalarial 3,5-Diarylaminopyridines Lead to a Novel Series of Pyrazine Analogues with Oral in vivo Activity. Y. Younis, F. Douelle, González Cabrera, C. Le Manach, A.T. Nchinda, T. Paquet, L.J. Street, K.L. White, K. M. Zabiulla, J.T. Joseph,  S. Bashyam, D. Waterson, M.J. Witty, S. Wittlin, S.A. Charman, and K. Chibale*   J. Med. Chem. 2013, 56, 8860−8871.
  12. Cell-based Medicinal Chemistry Optimization of High Throughput Screening (HTS) Hits for Orally Active Antimalarials-Part 2: Hits from SoftFocus Kinase and other Libraries. Y. Younis, L. J. Street, D. Waterson, M.J. Witty, and K. Chibale. J. Med. Chem. 2013, 56, 7750−7754.
  13. Structure-Activity Relationship Studies of Orally active Antimalarial 3,5-Substituted 2-Aminopyridines. D. González Cabrera, F. Douelle, Y. Younis, T.-S. Feng, C. Le Manach, A.T. Nchinda, L.J. Street, C. Scheurer, J. Kamber, K. White, O. Montagnat, E. Ryan, K. Katneni, K.M. Zabiulla, J. Joseph, S. Bashyam, D. Waterson, M.J. Witty, S. Charman, S. Wittlin, and K. Chibale* J. Med. Chem. 2012, 55, 11022– 11030.
  14. 3,5-Diaryl-2-aminopyridines as a Novel Class of Orally Active Antimalarials Demonstrating Single Dose Cure in Mice and Clinical Candidate Potential. Y. Younis, F. Douelle, T.-S. Feng, D. González Cabrera, C. Le Manach, A.T. Nchinda, S. Duffy, K.L. White, M. Shackleford,  J. Morizzi, J. Mannila, K. Katneni, R. Bhamidipati, K. M. Zabiulla, J.T. Joseph,  S. Bashyam, D. Waterson, M.J. Witty, D. Hardick, S. Wittlin, V. Avery, S.A. Charman, and K. Chibale*.  J. Med. Chem.  2012, 55, 3479−3487.
  15. Novel Orally Active Antimalarial Thiazoles. D. González Cabrera, F. Douelle, T.-S Feng, A.T. Nchinda, Y. Younis, K.L. White, Wu,E. Ryan, J.N. Burrows,D. Waterson, M.J. Witty,S. Wittlin,S.A. Charman and K. Chibale.  J. Med. Chem. 2011, 54, 7713–7719.
  16. Synthesis and molecular modeling of a lisinopril-tryptophan analogue inhibitor of angiotensin I-converting enzyme. A.T. Nchinda, K. Chibale, P. Redelinghuys and E.D. Sturrock. Med. Chem. Lett. 2006, 16(17), 4616-4619.

Patents

  1. Anti-Malarial Agents. Y. Younis, K. Chibale, M.J. Witty, D. Waterson. (2016) US9266842 B2.
  2. New Anti-Malarial Agents. D. Waterson, M.J. Witty, K. Chibale, L. Street, D. González Cabrera, T. Paquet. EP patent application (2015), No. 15 176 514.6.
  3. Preparation of aminopyrazine compounds as antimalarial agents for treatment of malaria. Y. Younis, K. Chibale, M.J. Witty, D. Waterson. PCT Int Appl. (2013), WO 2013121387 A1 20130822.
  4. Preparation of peptides as angiotensin I-​converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. E.D. Sturrock, A.T. Nchinda, K. Chibale. PCT Int. ppl. (2006), WO 2006126087 A2 20061130.
  5. Preparation of peptides as angiotensin I-​converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, E.D. Sturrock, A.T. Nchinda, K. Chibale. PCT Int. ppl. (2006), WO 2006126086 A2 20061130.

Head Office, Medicinal Chemistry Unit

Physical Address:
Department of Chemistry
7.32 H3D Lab Suite, PD Hahn Building, Level 7
North Lane off Ring Road
Upper Campus, University of Cape Town
Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa

T | 021 650 5495
F | 021 650 5195

Postal Address:
University of Cape Town
Private Bag X3
Rondebosch 7701
South Africa
 
P. D. Hahn Bldg, Rondebosch, Cape Town,
Map of P. D. Hahn Bldg, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa
 
P. D. Hahn Bldg, Rondebosch, Cape Town, 7700, South Africa
//////H3D, Africa,  integrated drug discovery and development centre,  University of Cape Town