WITS Chemists Find A Way To Turn Cashew Waste Into Vaccine Deliverer
Scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand have been recognised internationally for turning cashew nutshell waste into a vital ingredient for mRNA vaccines.
The Johannesburg-based team was named one of six global winners of the GIZ SAVax innovation award and received a grant of R7 million to scale up their work. The researchers, from Wits’ Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit and School of Chemistry, developed a method to convert cashew nutshell liquid, a by‑product usually discarded or burned, into hydrogenated cardanol. From this, they can produce ionisable lipids, the molecules that form the protective nanoparticles carrying messenger RNA into human cells. Without these lipids, the vaccines cannot trigger the immune response they are designed for.
Africa produces more than half of the world’s cashew nutshell liquid yet always tends to put little of it to use. The Wits breakthrough offers a renewable alternative to expensive petrochemical-based lipids that are largely patented and produced in wealthier countries. By using only the shells, the process avoids competing with food supply while unlocking new value from a neglected resource.
The project arrives at a critical moment. Africa currently manufactures only about one percent of the vaccines it consumes. The African Union has set a goal of raising that figure to sixty percent by 2040. Local production of key ingredients like lipids is considered essential to reaching that target.
Wits’ Advanced Drug Delivery Platform is collaborating with the South African company Chemical Process Technologies Pharma to advance toward large-scale production. The collaboration is part of a wider European Union and German-funded initiative to build vaccine and health technology capacity on the continent.
For researchers at Wits, the message is clear: what was once seen as agricultural waste could now become a foundation for Africa’s vaccine future.
Sources:-
(1) Wits University press release via CIVIS and EurekAlert
(2) Nature feature on bio‑renewable carriers for mRNA vaccines
