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History
- 1979 –Prof. Mienie started his work on metabolic defects in 1979 as part of his M.Sc., screening over 2000 patients at a psychiatric hospital for metabolic defects.
- 1983 – PLIEM was founded by Prof. L.J. Mienie at the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (Now the Potchefstroom campus of the North-West University). In its first year, the laboratory was manned by Prof. Mienie and 3 successful diagnoses were made with a borrowed GC-FID in association with Pretoria University.
- 1985 – PLIEM acquired its own GC-FID
- 1987 – End of affiliation with the Pretoria University. PLIEM acquired an amino acid analyzer and diagnosed the first Isovaleric acedemia case to be successfully treated. Read more…
- 1999 – The Newborn Screening project was established, a subdivision of PLIEM.
- 2008 – Reaches record number of 4337 samples received for the particular year.
- Today – The laboratory boasts with 10 permanent employees and high-tech sensitive equipment. An estimated 60000 patients have been screened to date, and about 10% of which was diagnosed with Inborn Errors of Metabolism. PLIEM collaborates with internationally acclaimed laboratories in the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Australia and the USA. Development of sensitive and effective techniques in the past few years enhanced the ability of presenting fast and quality assured results. We celebrated the laboratory’s 30th year anniversary in 2013!