President Yoweri Museveni has commissioned the first-ever bone marrow transplant centre at the Joint Clinical Research Center (JCRC) in Lubowa, along Entebbe Road, Wakiso District.

The President also laid a foundation stone and signed off a master plan of the new proposed cell and gene therapy centre. This was during the JCRC 30th Anniversary celebrations held at the center’s headquarters where he was the chief guest.

“I congratulate JCRC for the bone marrow transplant centre which you have just opened here. As Prof. [Charles ]Ibingira [board chair JCRC] said, when it’s done here, it will be much cheaper than when you do it outside,” he stated.

President Museveni, however, revealed that he is trying to persuade some religious people that when you do biotechnology and gene therapy, you are not interfering with the work of God.

“We have been doing it for a long time. I have been a genetic engineer for a long time because we the cattle keepers always select the good breeders which will produce more milk; there are some bulls which produce only females. 

“So, I want to convince my religious people that we have been doing that because of the performance criteria of those bulls. We are doing engineering but using the slow way of aggregating these genes. Now these scientists, because they have the whole chain of genes, they can know which one is causing problems and deal with it, just like we are doing it in breeding. We can also do it using this laboratory-based method. It is not a new practice,” he added.

A bone marrow transplant is a procedure that infuses healthy blood-forming stem cells into your body to replace bone marrow that’s not producing enough healthy blood cells. A bone marrow transplant is also called a stem cell transplant whereas gene therapy involves altering the genes inside one’s body’s cells in an effort to treat or stop disease.

The President also hailed the partners who have worked closely with JCRC in promoting research and clinical development over the years.