The establishment of the National Metabolomics platform at the NWU encompassed both the Focus Area: Human Metabolomics (FHM) and the Centre for Human Metabolomics (CHM). The focus area primarily performs research while the CHM commercialises the developed methods and/or findings.In 2008, the Technology Innovation Association (TIA) aimed to broaden the metabolomics research scope to diseases of high prevalence in Africa and globally. Prof. Du Toit Loots subsequently established the research programme “Metabolomics of Infectious and Acquired Diseases” within the focus area, human metabolomics.