Science Faculty Brochure Web

Faculty of Natural ScienceS

Science Snapshots
@UWC



CONTENTS

Map of international collaborations PAGE 2
Foreword PAGE 3
1 African Biodiversity PAGE 4
2 Agriculture PAGE 7
3 Astronomy PAGE 10
4 Computer and Mathematical Science PAGE 13
5 Drug Discovery PAGE 16
6 Energy PAGE 19
7 Genomics PAGE 22
8 Infectious Diseases PAGE 25
9 Nanoscience PAGE 28
10 Non Communicable Diseases PAGE 31
11 Nuclear Science PAGE 34
12 Oceans Research PAGE 37
13 Water PAGE 40
14 Niche Toys PAGE 43
Online references PAGE 46

2 UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN CAPE MAP OF international COLLABORATIONS

FOREWORD

It gives me great pleasure to write the Despite our seemingly remote global location,
foreword for this second Faculty of Natural the map of international collaborations presented
Sciences research brochure. At the outset I on the preceding page is a clear indication of the
would like to thank the Director of SANBI, growing international influence of our Faculty’s
Professor Alan Christoffels, who together with research. When compared with a similar map
his enthusiastic team compiled and edited this presented in our 2014 research brochure, it is
research brochure on behalf of the Faculty. We clear that there has been a significant expansion
also gratefully acknowledge the support of the of the Faculty’s international research footprint in
Director of HySA Systems, Dr Cordelia Sita, who the past four years. We hope that the inclusion of
funded this project. an overview of some of our world class research
facilities, under the heading “Cool Niche Toys,”
It is now four years since our first research may trigger new collaborations in the future.
brochure “Science@UWC- Research and
Researchers” was published. The ongoing In conclusion, this Faculty research brochure
Faculty strategy is to promote a collaborative, cannot hope in any way to encapsulate either
cross-disciplinary research culture by breaking every research interest or significant research and
down the scientific discipline and Departmental innovation achievement and is therefore intended
barriers, both real and imaginary, that inhibit to provide just a passing snapshot of what is
the optimal use of limited resources. This brochure currently happening (and glimpses of possible
is therefore a departure from its predecessor, future opportunities) within a thematic selection
which compartmentalised the Faculty’s research of the Faculty’s many research programmes. The
and innovation in terms of individual Depart- brochure is presented in an accessible format
ments, Institutes, Units and SARChI chairs. In for anyone interested in the exciting and diverse
this research brochure 13 research themes have scientific research journey taking place at the
been identified. I am aware that the identification University of the Western Cape. We hope that
of these thematic areas did not happen without you will enjoy reading this brochure and sharing
healthy and rigorous internal debate. A key this journey with us.
criterion considered in this debate was multiple
researchers sharing resources and expertise and Professor Mike Davies-Coleman
working together within a broad research area.
We hope that this debate will continue and be Dean of Natural Sciences
reflected in future research brochures, adding
further research themes concurrent with the April, 2018
rapidly changing world in which we live.

Quality science is not just about access to new
buildings, laboratories, technology and research
equipment but is more importantly about people,
ideas and collaboration. In the current resource-
limited economic climate, available research
resources will inevitably flow towards good
ideas coupled to good researcher track records.
Accordingly, each of the thematic research areas
presented here is driven by experienced NRF rated
researchers, including our seven SARChI chairs,
early career staff and most importantly a large
cohort of enthusiastic post-graduate students. A
bright future for the Faculty is reflected through
the success stories of our numerous rising stars.
We only wish we had the space here to record
many more of their inspirational stories.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 3

AFRICAN BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity refers to the variety of life South Africa and the Succulent Karoo, a semi-arid
that you get on earth. At the Department of area containing mostly dwarf succulents.
Biodiversity and Conservation Biology (BCB) at
UWC, researchers study this variety on a genetic, While these biodiversity hotspots offer a
species and ecosystem level. South Africa plethora of species to investigate Couldridge
contains 3 of the world’s biodiversity hotspots says one specialisation that could be
with the Cape Floristic Region
being the most species diverse expanded is taxonomy and
area in the country. systematics.

BCB Departmental Chair- Plant taxonomist Stephen
person Vanessa Couldridge Boatwright, an associate
points out that not only is the professor in BCB, has a scarce
vegetation unusually diverse in skill in South Africa. Taxonomy
the Cape Floristic Region but is about codifying basic
the growing human population information about different
puts a lot of pressure onto plant species but like in the rest of
and animal ecosystems as land the world, a dwindling number
is converted to other use in the of researchers who take up
Western Cape. new studies in biology are
concentrating on the defining
This allows for a lot of scope to and naming of species.
look at the evolution of systems,
such as the work done by social ecologist The Agricultural Research Council main-
Dr Richard Knight who maps and models tains offices at BCB, co-supervising sev-
distributions as he looks at the relationship eral post graduate students with lecturer
between people, plants and animals. Adriaan Engelbrecht who together join forces
to carry out research in Namaqualand and the
The two other biodiversity hotspots that Northern Cape into the micro-organisms and
UWC researchers have access to are the parasites that affect livestock.
Maputaland Pondoland Albany Region which

is a mix of habitats on the south east coast of

4 UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN CAPE

THE CAPE FLATS NATURE RESERVE Focus area

Established in 1977 as a private nature internship programme. The annual faunal
reserve and declared a heritage site the survey also provides valued insight for
following year. The Cape Flats Nature students and exposure to conservation at
Reserve not only conserves the natural work, which will better equip them for their
environment, but also provides environmental future research.
education and a sanctuary for local residents
in search of some natural calm. When the nature reserve was first
established, a greenhouse was built to
There are camera traps in the nature re- coddle seedlings of local plants in order to
serve which capture a glimpse of the elusive rehabilitate the land. Today that greenhouse
caracal, genet and many more and occasional- and the indigenous nursery provide facilities
ly snap a suburbanite meditating or reading as for the research of specific plants and their
they traverse the footpaths of the reserve. properties. Many other institutions use the
reserve, and students who need to do specific
The vegetation of this nature research that require a permit can do so by
reserve includes the endangered obtaining one from Cape Nature. In addition
indigenous plants are sold and made available
Cape Flats Dune Strandveld of by the nursery to the public in an attempt to
which only 43% remains with 6% promote indigenous water-wise gardens.
formally protected, and the Cape

Flats Sand Plain Fynbos of
which only 16% remains and 1%

is formally protected.

The nature reserve employs a conservator,
horticulturist, environmental educationist and
other staff with many years of experience in
the conservation field. The reserve primarily
serves as a research support structure for the
various faculties of the university with specific
focus on the departments within the Faculty
of Natural Sciences.

In addition, workshops and practicals for
students with limited finances are facilitated
at the Cape Flats Nature Reserve. Students
who require skills and practical experience in
community work are provided this opportunity
through the UWC Nature Reserve’s Outreach
Greening Programme, as well as the volunteer/

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 5

Rising Stars 2Professor J. Stephen Boatwright, associate

1Senior lecturer in the Department of Biodiversity professor in the Department of Biodiversity and
Conservation Biology (BCB), likes the combination
and Conservation Biology (BCB) Dr Bryan of traditional and modern methods that taxonomy
Maritz is referred to at UWC as the snake guy. offers.

His research focuses primarily on understand- As a researcher his interest lies in the taxonomy
ing the functional impact of snakes on African and systematics of African legumes (Fabaceae),
ecosystems. as well as selected genera of, amongst others
the Aizoaceae (vygies), Asphodelaceae (aloes),
Studying under the supervision of herpe- Asteraceae (daisies), Thymelaeaceae and the
tologist Graham Alexander at the University of taxonomy and identification of invasive plant
the Witwatersrand, Maritz became obsessed with species.
learning about snakes, eventually becoming a
reptile biologist. But the big project he is currently involved in
is the flora and evolution of the Karoo.
He joined UWC’s BCB in 2015 and when not
supervising Masters and Honours students or Boatwright and a collaborator from the South
lecturing, he is in the field studying the diets of African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)
African snakes to determine the ecological and are compiling a conspectus on the Nama Karoo.
evolutionary implications of what they eat. In addition to enumerating and describing the
different species they will also use DNA sequence
Because snakes are predators, the biggest data to date the radiation of various iconic Nama-
way they influence ecosystems is through the Karoo plant lineages to establish when and how
consumption of other animals. the region was colonised.

Another approach is to study snake populations They are especially interested in
and see how their numbers vary from time to time the mountains in the Bushmanland
relative to a) prey availability and b) other animals Inselberg region where they are
they compete with for food. His most recently investigating the genetic connectivity
reported research was on Cape Cobra and between these isolated mountains,
Boomslang diets, examining how the two species using stone plants as an exemplar
have overlapping diets where they occur together group, in order to set conservation
and Maritz asked whether the two snakes could priorities in lieu of mining activity
be considered intraguild competitors (they kill
and eat competitors). close to Aggeneys.
At the beginning of 2018 Maritz started Boatwright is pleased by a recent grant
for bursaries he was awarded by the National
a new long-term study at a Cape Research Foundation. He will use the Collaborative
Cobra and Boomslang study site in the Post Graduate Training Grant to bring together
Northern Cape to study the movement several institutions, including SANBI and previously
patterns of these 2 snakes relative to disadvantaged Higher Education Institutions, to
sociable weaver nests that they both co-ordinate hubs to train postgraduate students
in taxonomy.
use as food resources.
He and his team surgically implanted captured
snakes with radio transmitters to track and study
them over the next few years.

6 UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN CAPE

AGRICULTURE

Dr Hesse chatting with a Rooibos Farmer in Nieuwoudtville.

South Africa is home to one of the six floral as a means to develop novel drugs and herbal
kingdoms of the world, harboring nearly 9000 supplements.
plant species (20% of the plant species on the
continent), 70% of which are endemic. Over Hesse’s current research focuses on the
3000 of these plant species are known to possess genomics of rooibos (Aspalathus linearis).
medicinal properties, and approximately 1000 Rooibos is one of the economically most
are actively traded. Yet, locally, commercial plant important endemic South African medicinal
production, plant breeding and biotechnological plant species “with a substantial cultivation
exploitation of this immense biological resource area” that is exported worldwide.

are virtually missing. The genomic background of
these plant species has not been investigated and Dr Gordon Harkins and his team at SANBI-
biosynthetic pathways for the diverse medicinal UWC focus on the evolution and molecular
compounds remain unknown.
epidemiology of single-stranded DNA and RNA
viral pathogens of animals and plants.
Senior Researcher at the South African National
Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI-UWC) and senior Harkins is a member of a highly productive
lecturer in the Biotechnology Department, plant-virus epidemiology network that seeks
Dr Uljana Hesse, focuses on the study of the to determine the evolutionary underpinnings
genomic background of diverse endemic South of the emergence and spread of the numerous
African medicinal plants. viral diseases that threaten the health and food
security of Africa and the rest of the developing
Hesse’s goal is to establish all procedures world.
essential for plant genome analysis, data mining
and biotechnological utilisation locally, so as to In collaboration with researchers from CIRAD
provide South Africa with a leading position in France, the State University of Arizona and
the field of medicinal plant biotechnology and to University of Cape Town, Harkin’s Laboratory
advance development of commercial production has adopted a “geo-metagenomics” approach
systems and protection of this endemic natural to investigate whether ecological disturbances
resource. (such as intensive agriculture) cause measurable
changes in the spatial and temporal diversity,
Her work aligns with international trends demographics and evolutionary dynamics of
where reduced sequencing costs have sparked a viral communities inhabiting natural ecosystems
renewed worldwide interest in plant biotechnology linked to the emergence of socially-relevant crop-
infecting geminiviral diseases.



FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 7

Focus area

LOOKING AT PLANTS DIFFERENTLY

Drought conditions in the Western Cape An ongoing collaboration with Fort Hare
emphasise how agricultural sciences link to University is yielding welcome results.
plant biotechnology, animal husbandry and
health sciences. Professor Ndiko Ludidi, in the The original question was whether canola
Department of Biotechnology, is researching (rapeseed - pictured above and below) would
drought stress on maize and sorghum, grow as well in the Eastern Cape as the
particularly seeking to answer the anecdotal Western Cape, but they are also considering
question of whether sorghum is the more whether canola would function as a good
drought tolerant of the two. animal feed and how that would affect the
quality of the meat.
While maize is considered a staple food by
many South Africans, sorghum has as good While researching the effects of metal
a nutritional profile but it is not as readily stress on plants Keyster noted two particular
used. So, the next question is either figuring endophytes which were particularly resistant
out what about the sorghum makes it more and he then tried coating the canola with the
drought tolerant and can this be transferred same endophytes to see whether this would
to the maize, or promote growth. Though it did help the canola
grow better, the next question is whether this
is there a way to improve the would still work under drought conditions.
standing of sorghum as a staple

food in the eyes of the public.

While Ludidi specifically looks at plant
drought interactions, he has started a Plant
Stress Group with Doctors Ashwil Klein and
Marshal Keyster to look at how current drought
conditions affect food crops as a whole.

Lecturer in Biotechnology Klein researches
disease-causing plant pathogens while senior
lecturer in Biotechnology Keyster researches
microbial plant interactions, specifically
looking at endophytes.

8 UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN CAPE

Rising Stars 2Yamkela Mgwatyu studied a Biotechnology

1Wesley Williams is currently working on National Diploma and B.Tech at Cape Peninsula
University of Technology before she started an
post-doctoral studies at the Institute for Microbial NRF funded internship at UWC in 2016.
Biotechnology and Metagenomics (IMBM).
Working under the supervision of Dr Uljana
He is part of a Hesse at IMBM, the 23-year-old was exposed
team investigat- to various kinds of molecular and microbiology
ing the genomics laboratorial work.
of Rooibos, which
grows in the Ced- She changed her focus to biochemistry when
erberg and which she helped a PhD candidate who was investigat-
has successfully ing roooibos polyphenols before alighting on
made the transi- computational work.
tion from wild and
subsistence lev- Switching to bioinformatics, Mgwatyu started
el harvesting to her Masters research at the beginning of 2017,
commercial crop investigating the genetic diversity of commercial
sold globally. and different growth forms of wild rooibos eco-
types. For this,
Eventually he she will use tran-
wants to wants to scriptome data
use synthetic biology to produce medicine and obtained from
nutraceuticals derived from micro organisms in different rooi-
African medical plants. bos ecotypes to
screen for genes
After graduating from Stellenbosch University that can distin-
Williams worked as a microbiologist for the South guish between the
African Bureau of Standards where he developed recently discov-
new PCR methods for the detection of pathogens ered rooibos eco-
in food and water. types. Her study
will provide valu-
He then enrolled at UWC for a masters and PhD able phylogenetic
at the Institute of Microbial Biotechnology and information of the
Metagenomics, graduating with his PhD in 2017. rooibos species
Williams was supported by an NRF Scarce Skills diversity, and help understanding the genetic
Bursary to complete his studies. He presented his background for the observed morphological di-
research findings on using functional metagenom- versity of rooibos ecotypes.
ics to search for new biosurfactant molecules at
the Sintef Functional Metagenomics Conference Mgwatyu has also been involved in community
in Inderøy, Norway. outreach, where she and Dr Hesse’s team went
to Wupperthal (a small area in Clanwilliam)
Surfactants are molecules that emulsify liquids to teach the small-holder farmers Thin-Layer
such as oil and water. Widely used in detergents, Chromatography; a quick, easy and cost-effective
cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, surfactants can method for detecting aspalathin (the major
be toxic to aquatic environments and hard to compound in rooibos) in rooibos plants prior to
break down. harvesting.

Biosurfactants are microbial in origin and This will enable the farmers
biodegradable, non-toxic to fish and milder on to select seed with “aspalathin” and
human skin. generate a type of “super rooibos”.

Williams identified a biosurfactant, Already she knows she wants to continue this
an ornithine lipid, which is subject line of phylogenetic research for a PhD and look
deeper at the genetics of rooibos and in future,
to a provisional patent, and to explore other commercially important South
could possibly be used in the African medicinal plants.
emulsification of food products.

His study confirmed it is possible to use
functional metagenomics to look for biosurfactants
in bacteria that cannot be cultured.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 9

ASTRONOMY

Astronomy can broadly be described as the sets, such as those coming from the SKA and its
science of celestial objects and phenomena. pathfinder, MeerKAT.
It incorporates the areas of Cosmology,
Theoretical Astrophysics and Observational UWC is contributing to the building of a new
Astrophysics, and makes use of mathematics, generation of scientists who can use SKA to do
physics and chemistry to further our under- some world-class science. This will ensure that
standing of the formation and evolution of South Africa is not just exporting the data being
the universe (on the largest scales) and the collected here, but is also actually able to do
mechanism of star and planet formation (on the science with it.
smallest scales).
The technological advances required to explore
Most recently UWC Astrophysics was actively the universe in new ways often leads to advances
involved in the digital upgrade of the Iziko that are passed on to other areas. For example,
Planetarium and Digital Dome, under the the technology behind the cameras that are now
leadership of Associate Professor Michelle Cluver, common place in digital phones was originally
completed in May 2017. developed for astronomy.

UWC has a strong track record of research Similarly, the methods that have
excellence in several key areas of astrophysics been developed to process and
and have recently become part of the pioneering analyse astronomical data haVE
IDIA (Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive lead to advances in medical imagery
Astronomy) where the development of techniques and are responsible for the WiFi
and software will enable the mining of large data technology we now heavily rely

on to communicate.

10 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

MIGHTY DATA IN OUTER SPACE Focus area

The MeerKAT radio telescope, a precursor This energy can be released in the form
to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), goes of giant jets which stretch to many millions
online in April 2018. All 64 telescope dishes of times the size of the galaxy. There is
that comprise MeerKAT will start gathering evidence that these radio jets both increase
data which will be used by, amongst others, and decrease the rates at which stars are
10 projects led by scientists from across the produced, and a survey like MIGHTEE would
world, studying an array of subjects. help clarify what happens when galaxies
form.
Ten of the 57 astronomers involved
in one of the projects, MIGHTEE, are One problem Whittam anticipates for the
MIGHTEE survey is visualisation of data.
UWC students, professors and
post-doctoral fellows. MeerKAT will produce such large data sets
that it will be impossible for astronomers to
What makes the MeerKAT International process the raw data on their own.
GHz Tiered Extragalactic Exploration
(MIGHTEE) survey exciting for astronomers This is where the Inter-University Institute
is the combination of making a deep for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA), under
observation and covering a large area. The the directorship of SKA Research Chair at
MIGHTEE survey will collect data to create UCT and UWC, Professor Russ Taylor, comes
deep images in four different patches in the into play.
sky, covering a total of 10 square degrees -
approximately 40 times the size of the moon. IDIA focuses on the development of
MIGHTEE survey astronomers each have data solutions for MeerKAT projects such as
their own focus and one UWC post doctoral MIGHTEE.
fellow, Dr Imogen Whittam, explains that
her focus is looking at how radio jets affect Lessons learned from managing MeerKAT
star formation in galaxies. data will go towards setting up the large scale
deployment of data management, storage and
All galaxies have a supermassive black transfer needed to handle the data process-
hole at their centre and in some galaxies gas ing that SKA will eventually necessitate. Once
and dust is falling into this black hole, causing completed around 2020, SKA will generate
extremely large quantities of energy to be data at a rate faster than that of current global
released. internet traffic.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 11

Rising Stars 2The 26-year-old Eliab Malefahlo is from

124 year old Nicole Thomas was in Cape Town Limpopo Province and fell in love with space and
astronomy when he first learned about planets,
during December, taking a break from a 6 month solar systems and the galaxies in grade 5.
study visit to Oxford University.
Malefahlo started off as an undergrad student
Winding up her Masters degree research in in Physics and Astronomy at UCT, then joined the
using cosmological simulations to model how National Astrophysics and Space Science Program
galaxies cluster, Thomas went to Oxford through (NASSP) for honours and masters coursework,
the Newton Fund. There she was learning about completing his Master’s thesis at UWC as part of
the observational side of multi-wavelength NASSP. A grant from the SKA has enabled him to
astronomy, meeting observers and getting to do his PhD under the supervision of Professors
grips with how to make accurate cosmological Mario Santos (UWC, SKA) and Matt Jarvis (Oxford,
predictions. UWC), which he hopes to finish in 2019.

She started her PhD studies in 2018 with a His project aims to develop/improve several
3 year stint funded by the Square Kilometer of the data analysis methods that will be used
Array. Thomas initially got her start at UWC to extract the cosmology information from the
with a BSc in Physics before doing her Honours Square Kilometre Array (SKA) survey and its
in Astrophysics and Space Science at UCT as precursor MeerKAT.
part of the National Astrophysics and Space
Science Programme (NASSP). She did the first The study of the origin, structure and evolution
six months of her Masters coursework at UCT of the universe (cosmology) has mostly been done
before coming back to UWC and a study visit through using data from large sky surveys from
to England. optical telescopes. Cosmology has also recently
been studied through large sky radio surveys but
For her PhD, her research interest will be they don’t reach the depth of optical surveys.
about how galaxies form and evolve - trying to The new generation of radio telescopes under
understand the physics that make them work, construction, such as SKA, will provide even larger
which is still poorly understood by simulators and deeper radio surveys surpassing those of the
and observers alike. She will focus on how active optical surveys currently available.
galactic nuclei drive galaxy evolution in order
to create predictions for upcoming surveys and Current data analysis has been used on optical
projects through SKA. data to extract cosmological information but is
rarely used on radio wave data. This includes
Once she has completed her PhD she hopes data analysis tools such as two-point correlation
to move on to post doctoral research, though functions.
she does know that even if she doesn’t stay in
astrophysics the work she is doing on big data Malefahlo hopes to extend the
sets will equip her with skills that will take her recently developed Bayesian stacking
far.
to calculate luminosity functions
below the detection threshold.

12 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

COMPUTATIONAL AND
MATHEMATICAL SCIENCE

Early in 2018 Computational and Mathemati-
cal Sciences becomes the moniker for one entity
when four existing departments move into one
building on the UWC campus - Department of
Statistics and Population Studies, Department of
Computer Science, Department of Mathematics
and Information Systems.

Almost every aspect of daily life is influenced
in some way by computers and UWC computer
scientists study how to advance computing tech-
nology in Africa.

Mathematics is at the heart of all technology,
and is the language used to express solutions to

everyday problems and help us understand the Secondly, when our ICT artefacts are taken
way in which natural and man-made environments up by larger and larger populations as a result
operate. of social and technological innovation, we must
learn how to handle more and more devices in
The two sciences meet when statisticians our physical and social networks and how to
crunch big data sets to extract useful data that better analyse large datasets to deliver more
can answer questions that improve lives. useful technologies.

On the “app” side of computational sciences at A UWC project that received considerable
UWC BANG (Bridging Application and Network attention in 2017 was SignSupport, a mobile
Gaps), research is about harnessing and realising assistive technology app designed with, and for,
Information and Communication Technologies deaf people that helps them understand, in sign
(ICT) to improve the lives of marginalised and language videos, instructions from a hearing
vulnerable communities in South Africa. pharmacist who cannot sign.

There are several key tie-ins to Computational The BANG research group, led by Professor Bill
and Mathematical Science. Firstly, we need new Tucker, is busy with an array of other healthcare
ways to realise ICT so it addresses societal needs, scenarios, including diabetes self-management
for example by using socially aware software and antenatal care so that deaf people can take
engineering. control of their healthcare needs on their own,
with instructions in their first language, South
African Sign Language.

On the statistical analyses side Big Data
Analytics is an important new focus of Professor
Renette Blignaut of the Statistics and Population
Studies Department.

Research in this field explores statistical tech-
niques to improve model fitting using big data.
This includes: missing data imputation techniques,
statistical modelling such as decision trees, asso-
ciation analysis, cluster analysis, neural networks
and various types of regressions, data partitioning,
bagging and boosting to improve model stability
and developing model assessment techniques.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 13

Focus area

It’s all in the numbers

While mobile phone technology telco’, an international initiative harnessing
has been adopted faster in Africa than open-access hardware and software, built
anywhere else, there are still factors inhibiting around a wireless network architecture known
telecommunication in remote areas. as mesh networking.

Wireless devices need to access a network The small, cheap devices which serve as
of cellphone towers and airtime and device base stations for the mesh network (mesh
costs are prohibitive for many. potatoes) are mounted on and inside houses
around Mankosi, covering an area of 30 square
UWC Computer Science researchers kilometres.
responded to this challenge by launching a
telecommunications project in Mankosi in the Zenzeleni (isiXhosa for “do it yourself”)
Eastern Cape. constitutes a fully fledged Internet Service
Provider equipped with an Internet and Voice
Home to 6000 people Mankosi is Over Internet Protocol gateway and a billing
dependent on relatively expensive major system run by community managers.
mobile operators - a survey showed up to
22% of income can be spent on expensive The Independent Communications
data and airtime. Authority of South Africa (Icasa), which
grants licences to ISPs, has granted Zenzeleni
Most homes are un-electrified so people a licence exemption so the community only
pay to charge phones at local shops or pays for the backhaul internet connectivity.
shebeens.
Zenzeleni’s voice calls and data costs are
Initiated in 2012, the Zenzeleni project aims cheaper than that of big mobile operators and
to give the community more choice in tele- the solar powered stations charge cell phone
communication access and cut phone bills. batteries for less than that charged by spaza
and shebeens.
The team first approached local leaders to
get the community on board, then provided The next goal is to build critical mass to
help and mentorship. Now residents run the support more communities around Mankosi
solar powered wireless community network. to grow their own networks, allowing more
people to sustainably connect to cheaper
Professor Bill Tuckers has for many years voice, data and phone battery charging.
led a study on the establishment of a ‘village

14 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

Rising Stars 2Dr Retha Luus completed her PhD in 2016

1Humphrey Brydon is looking forward to on Statistical Inference of Multiple Regression
Analysis of Complex Survey Data. She considered
stepping into the role of lecturer in the Department incorrect versus correct modelling of complex
of Statistics and Population Studies at UWC. survey data and confirmed that incorrectly
modelling survey data leads to distorted
He is winding up his PhD thesis which looks at results.
imputing missing data in Big Data sets, trying to
answer the question of whether current imputation Luus studied at Stellenbosch University and
methods work in a big data setting. The theory is now lectures at UWC in the Department of
that imputations should increase the accuracy of Statistical and Population Studies.
the model, but Brydon wants clarity on whether
or not the missing data affects the accuracy of She was awarded a National Research Fund
the analysis in big data scenarios. PhD Sabbatical Grant in 2015 and received a NRF
Grant Holder’s Bursary in 2008, having originally
Brydon was awarded the SACEMA/NRF Scarce started with a NRF Scarce Skills Bursary for post
Skills Bursary in 2013 towards completing his MSc graduate studies in statistics in 2007.
in Statistics and the SASA/NRF Statistics in Crisis
PhD Bursary in 2015. Luus is also a member of the Golden Key
International Honours Society.
In 2013 he augmented his MSc Statistics
credentials with a six month exchange to She has regularly presented her research on
SciencesPo, Paris resulting in an MSc degree in complex survey data at annual conferences of the
Finance and Strategy. South African Statistical Association since 2011,
including presentations entitled such as Simulat-
Brydon is a member of the Golden Key Interna- ing Complex Sampling Data for the Evaluation of
tional Honours Society as well as the South African Survey Weighted Linear Models; The Effectiveness
Statistical Association (SASA) and has presented of Weighting and Bootstrap in the Estimation of
papers at the SASA annual conference in 2015. Model Parameters Under Complex Sampling; and
The Role of Weighting in Analysis of Complex
Brydon will concentrate his future research on Survey Data.
aspects of big data. His move up the ladder from
support staff to lecturer coincides with the univer- She also presented a paper on How to
sity relocating the departments of Statistics and Estimate Poverty and Inequality Measures from
Population Studies, Computer Science, Mathemat- Survey Samples at the Cycle De Conferences,
ics and Information Systems into one building, a France - Afrique du Sud, Les Grands Defis
move Brydon wants to take advantage of as he Demographiques du 21e Siecle in Paris in 2013.
wants to research all aspects of big data.
It is important to Luus that users of survey data
He is especially interested in how South African be aware of the consequences when incorrectly
cities need to manage resources and information analysing survey data and next she wants to
more effectively in order to become smarter cities. expand her research into the area where survey
Managing and analysing the flow of data and sciences meets big data analysis.
information in useful ways will be key.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 15

DRUG DISCOVERY

drug discovery and development is about The Pharmacology group focusses on clinical,
improving health and at UWC emphasis is placed pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic studies of
on diseases relevant to South Africa. The core HIV/AIDS and TB medicine, Ethnopharmacology
collaborative drug discovery teams are based at the and the use of in-silico, in-vitro and in-vivo models,
UWC School of Pharmacy, South African National and the interface of traditional and western
Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI-UWC), the medicine.
Institute of Microbial Genomics and Metagenomics
(IMBM) and the Department of Biotechnology. The main purpose of the School of Pharmacy
is to train pharmacists. In addition to experiential
Comprehensive Drug Discovery and development learning the School of Pharmacy also offers
at the School of Pharmacy include: a service learning programme to students.
• The Drug Design and Medicinal Chemistry This is a social response approach to learning
which ties into UWC’s emphasis on community
group; engagement. While structured in terms of
• Targeting neurodegenerative diseases as well learning goals for students, the service learning
programme is also about students contributing
as reversing resistance to current treatment particular services to the healthcare system and
for tuberculosis and malaria; by extension society. This NRF funded service
• A project to develop a nanomedicine for the learning and community engagement project has
treatment of tuberculosis which has received led to institutional recognition and international
5 year funding from the United States National acknowledgement.

Institutes of Health; and
• marine drug discovery and targets for various As of 2018 UWC started a Masters programme
diseases. in Clinical Pharmacology aimed at pharmacists
who will work in hospitals. The South African
The Drug Development and Drug Delivery group Pharmacy Council has indicated a need for this
focuses on macromolecular chemistry aspects specialisation to handle antimicrobial steward-
in pre-formulation and formulation of medicines ship, especially important from a public health
as well as developing novel delivery methods, perspective.
including nanomedicine and nanosystems for
drug delivery.

16 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

DIGITAL DESIGN Focus area

Computer-aided drug design (CADD) the biological activities (medical use) of
has speeded up research into discovering phytochemicals found in plant medicines,
effective drugs to treat malaria, tuberculosis thereby eliminating the cost of biological
and cancer over the last five years. tests or assays.

Advances in computing power to handle big Both lecture on their chosen focus and
data sets have made it easier for researchers to Dr Egieyeh has incorporated CADD in
design drugs based on the parameters of the an elective called Preclinical and Clinical
active receptor sites within protein enzymes Drug Development for final year pharmacy
at which potential drug molecules are thought students.
to bind.
Egieyeh is particularly excited about what
CADD is a specialised discipline that uses computer-aided drug design can mean for
computational methods to simulate drug- neglected diseases in Africa - it can make
receptor interactions, according to either a drug design faster, less expensive and more
structure-based method or a ligand-based focused on research into diseases found on
method, both of which are explored at this continent.
UWC.
In July 2018 he will be a guest speaker
While Dr Ruben Cloete, lecturer at the at the Drug Discovery and Pathogen Box
South African National Bioinformatics Institute Conference & Workshop at the Nnamdi
(SANBI-UWC), concentrates on the structure- Azikiwe University in Nigeria where one of
based method (creating a drug that will the topics to be discussed will be empower-
modulate a particular protein or enzyme ing African biomedical scientists with the
to create the desired effect) Dr Samuel skills to solve local problems with local
Egieyeh, lecturer at the School of Pharmacy, resources, using computers to speed up the
concentrates on the ligand-based method process.
(collecting samples - synthetic chemicals
and phytochemicals - introducing them
into a known protein system and using
computer modelling predicting how they
interact with protein and cause the observed
effect).

In addition, Dr Egieyeh is currently
optimising computer models that can predict

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 17

Rising Stars 2Dr Samuel Egieyeh loved mathematics and

1Lecturer Dr Ruben Cloete started off his scien- chemistry at high school so studied for a B.Pharm
at the University of Lagos in Nigeria in the mid-90s
tific career focusing on human genetics, looking as a way to pursue both.
at the genetic factors that contribute to families
displaying hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Now he is a lecturer in the Computational
Pharmacology and Cheminformatics group at
He built on the BSc he obtained from Stellen- UWC.
bosch University in Biodiversity and Ecology with
Honours and Masters in the Department of Medi- A fellowship
cal Biochemistry, University of Stellenbosch. with the UN-fund-
ed International
While working on a National Research Foun- Centre for Genetic
dation internship at the Department of Medical Engineering and
Biochemistry, Tygerberg campus Dr Cloete was Biotechnology
exposed to tuberculosis research and attended a brought him to
bioinformatics workshop at UWC where he got Cape Town 8 years
hooked on the computational side of scientific ago where he was
analysis. The manipulation and leveraging of large exposed to mo-
amounts of data to make biological assumptions lecular technology
is still a scarce skill in South Africa. techniques and bioinformatics training he could not
access back home. He was exposed to cheminfor-
He then registered at the SANBI-UWC for matics while at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical
a PhD which he finished in 2013, researching Research, Basel Switzerland in 2014.

The prioritised selection, homology modeling
and docking studies of potential drug targets in Egieyeh’s Masters degree at UWC was
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, located within first in pharmaceutical technology, focusing on
line drug resistance pathways. stabilising the liquid medicine derived from the
Artemisia afra plant to create a stable tablet.
In his newly Ideally Egieyeh wants to create a stable tablet
appointed position form of the medicine, presented in a measured
as lecturer at dose, but physical experimentation will only
UWC Dr Cloete happen when he secures research funding.

now continues his
research focusing Bioinformatics training at SANBI-UWC and
on identifying cheminformatics training at the Novartis Institute
novel drugs to for Biomedical Research (Basel Switzerland
treat susceptible in 2014) got him interested in computational
and resistant forms research and he focused on computer strategies
of Mycobacterium to identify, prioritise and design antimalarial
tuberculosis in agents from natural products. He concentrated
between assist- on, amongst others, the traditional medicines
ing with workshop and training courses in his mother used on him as a child suffering from
Bioinformatics at SANBI-UWC. malaria.

His specialisation includes structural bio- In the meantime, Egieyeh’s research is focused
informatics, focusing on predicting three- on setting up a system to investigate various
dimensional structures of proteins, peptides and traditional medicines for their true medicinal
RNA, as well as molecular dynamic simulation purpose and turning the compounds they contain
and docking studies to identify inhibitors of into viable, commercially available, safe drugs.

enzymes.
In 2017 he attended the inaugural Drug
Most recently he attended the ISCB Af- Discovery Africa conference in Ile-Ife, Nigeria
rica ASBCB Conference on Bioinformatics in where he spoke about the drug discovery
Entebbe, Uganda where he delivered an oral pipeline he is formulating, but it was his thoughts
presentation on structural and functional ef- on the need for further bioinformatics training
fects of nucleotide variations on the tuberculosis in Nigeria that has seen him invited back to start
drug metabolising enzyme human arylamine co-supervising postgraduate students.
N-acetyltransferase 1.

18 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

ENERGY

Replacing fossil fuels with clean renewable academia, industrial partners, including technol-
energy is fast becoming a matter of when, not if. ogy development, engineering and manufacturing
companies in South Africa and globally.
Renewable energy is a steadily developing
science and continuous technological advance- Highlights in this area include semi-commercial
ment is leading to a rapid fall in cost. collaborations on the manufacturing of HT-
MEAs with Fumatech (a German membrane
According to the International Renewable manufacturer and a Chinese investor);
Energy Agency the cost of renewable energy will collaborations with LOHR (private French group
not only be comparable to that of fossil fuels by which specialises in the design, manufacture
the year 2020, but will continue to drop. and marketing of goods transport systems), Golden
Arrow and Nedstack for the use of fuel cells as
Thus, turning to renewable energy sources is range extenders on buses and metal hydride
not only environmentally friendly but becoming with local (Impala Platinum) and international
the smart economic choice. companies (Hystorsys).

While coal is still king in South Africa, the HySA Systems has successfully developed
Department of Energy has committed to increasing and demonstrated a diverse portfolio of
the use of renewable energy in terms of the production offerings. These include AB2 and
country’s Integrated Resource Plan and UWC is AB5 metal hydride materials for hydrogen
just one of many sites where alternative energy compression, purification and storage, refuelling
sources are investigated. station, HT-MEAs, 1KWe CHP System and a
wide range of utility vehicles for real industrial
The HySA Systems Integration & Technology applications.
Validation Competence Centre - HySA Systems - is
hosted by UWC and located at the South African
Institute for Advanced Materials Chemistry.

Directed by Dr Cordellia Sita HySA Systems is
one of three national Competence Centres initiated
by the Department of Science and Technology’s
National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies
Flagship as part of a 15 year programme (the other
two centres are Hydrogen Catalysis and Hydrogen
Generation, Delivery and Storage).

Also known as Hydrogen South Africa, HySA
Systems is responsible for two key programmes
1) Combined Heat and Power (CHP); and
2) Hydrogen Fuelled Vehicles.

The HySA Systems R&D activities include
materials (palladium membranes and metal
hydrides (MH) for solid state storage);
components (High Temperature Membrane
Electrode Assemblies (HT-MEAs) stacks);
subcomponents (MH containers and palladium
membrane reactors); complete systems
(HTPEM generators, CHP systems, MH systems,
compressors) among others.

As a Systems Integration and Technology
Validation Centre of Competence, HySA Systems
also develops prototypes, their testing and
commissioning in the field.

One of HySA Systems’ principal objectives is
to establish long-term project collaborations with

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 19

Focus area

MAKING SOLAR CELLS

T h e Co n d e n s e d M at t e r P h ys ic s The PASTA machine will allow UWC physics
Research Group falls under the students to make solar cells from thin films.
Department of Physics and Astronomy. They
focus on the design, modelling, deposition This is different to mainstream solar panels
and characterisation of silicon-alloyed and which look like flat glass plates containing a
organic-inorganic thin films/nanostructures few wafers, and is a technology dominated by
for incorporation into renewable energy Chinese companies.
devices such as hybrid/tandem solar cells.
Thin film technology allows solar cells to
Recently the research group had a boost be deposited onto flexible foil and cheaper
to their capacity now that UWC has become substrates which can be lightweight.
a proud owner of a PASTA machine.
While the deposition technique is not
PASTA (Process Equipment for Amorphous mainstream - mostly plasma CVD technology
Silicon Thin film Applications) is a multi- is used - this hot wire CVD technique is a faster
chamber ultra high vacuum system used to and gentler deposition technique.
create thin film silicon solar cells, the first of
its kind for a South African university. Solar cells are composed of more than one
material and each layer of material needs to
The machine came to UWC thanks to be deposited in a different chamber, which this
Professor Ruud Schropp of Utrecht University’s PASTA machine allows.
physics department merging with Eindhoven
University of Technology which already had The solar cell is grown from a layer of
similar equipment. gasses which react within each chamber of
the machine to deposit a thin film. Each thin
Not wanting to scrap the machine in film layer is made up of different material with
Utrecht, Schropp took advantage of the a specific property and together the stacked
history of collaborations between UWC and layers make up the working electronic parts to
Utrecht University, initiating the conversation create a very stable solar cell.
around moving the machine with Professor
Christopher Arendse of UWC’s Department of This stability, combined with South Africa’s
Physics and Astronomy when both attended natural abundance of sunlight, could be a
a hot-wire CVD (chemical vapour deposition) major selling point for developing thin film
conference in Philadelphia, US in 2016. silicon solar cells within the local photovoltaic
industry.

20 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

Rising Stars 2Lynndle Square is the first and only

1Franscious Cummings is a senior lecturer in Computational Condensed Matter Physicist
i n U WC ’ s D e p a r t m e n t o f P h y s i c s a n d
the Electron Microscope Unit. Astronomy.

His expertise in advanced electron microscopy She obtained her PhD in 2017 and currently
has encouraged collaborations with various local lectures physics to first year students.
research groups such as the CSIR and National
Metrology Institute of SA and an international She is fascinated by the process of computa-
partnership with University of Missouri-Colombia. tional physics - the modelling and simulation of a
scenario which allows for a better understanding
His PhD topic focused on improving longer of how and why a product/process occurs.
term stability and flexibility of Grätzel solar
cells. Critical research problems can be addressed
through modelling as often the solution lies in
Cheaper to make than silicon-based solar cells, controlling or adapting the process or behaviour
Grätzel cells are based on the photosynthesis at a molecular/atomic level.
principle, employing natural dye molecules
to absorb sunlight and convert it into flowing Material modelling enabled her to deliver
electrons. Grätzel cells can be manufactured at recommendations to fellow students running
home using common, inexpensive materials but experiments and for her PhD studies she
their relatively low efficiency prevents large scale used material modelling to study factors influencing
commercialisation. proton conductivity in hydrogen fuel cells.

Cummings investigated the feasibility of Square started off with a degree in applied
employing low cost nano-materials to facilitate mathematics at the University of Cape Town
simpler electron transport. and worked as
a merchandise
He was able to successfully demonstrate planner in cos-
that using titanium dioxide nanotubes instead metics for three
of titanium dioxide nanoparticles drastically years. Intrigued
improved the resultant electron transport by an advertise-
properties of Grätzel cells. ment for a UWC
Physics Masters
Since 2013 Cummings has been investigating programme that
solar cells other emphasised their
than Grätzel cells links to indus-
and has successfully try, she applied
employed various and completed
one-dimensional a Masters de-
nano-wires in gree that used
organic/polymer Computational Fluid Dynamics to study a
solar cells. section in a hydrogen fuel cell.

In 2017 he set up She was awarded a PhD Research Grant from
an organic solar cell UWC which allowed her to attend a molecular
processing facility in dynamics school in Amsterdam where she was
the Department of the only student from Africa.
Physics and Astro-
nomy as part of their From 2018 Square will start
broader Solid-States research. supervising Masters students and
she wants to start a Computational
Over the next 5 years he wants to establish an
internationally competitive research laboratory Physics team within the UWC
for the fabrication of low-cost solar cells at the Department of Physics and
university. Astronomy while continuing
research into computational
Since 2013 he has authored and co-authored physics as specifically applied
more than 25 publications in internationally
peer-reviewed journals and presented papers at to solar cells.
3 international and 5 local conferences.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 21

GENOMICS

Genomics is the study of an organism’s technologies, placing the Institute at the cutting
genome, while metagenomics is a edge of research.
branch of genomics which involves
study of all the genomes present in an The South African National Bioinformatics
environmental sample. Institute (SANBI-UWC) focuses on the develop-
ment, implementation and use of computational
The genomic sequence is used to study methods to analyse genomic data spanning
the function of the numerous genes biomedical and agriculture applications.
(functional genomics), to compare the
genes in one organism with those of The SANBI-UWC hosts the prestigious DST/
another (comparative genomics), or to NRF SARChI research chair in Bioinformatics
generate the 3-D structure of one or and Public Health Genomics, held by Professor
more proteins from each protein family, Alan Christoffels, and provides a cutting edge
thus offering clues to their function computational biology environment to analyse
(structural genomics). genomic data.

The Institute for Microbial Biotechnology
and Metagenomics (IMBM) focuses on the
use of (meta)genomics for the research and
development of novel, high-value natural
products for the pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical,
food & beverage and agricultural industries,
as well as products for industrial processes.

The IMBM hosts the prestigious DST/NRF
SARChI research chair in Microbial Genomics,
held by Professor Marla Trindade and
provides state of the art research facilities
and equipment for, amongst others, Single
Cell Genomics, and other “omics” related

UNRAVELING BACTERIAL CLUES TO
DRUG RESISTANCE

Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis continues to analyses to include thousands of genomic
plague South Africa. However access to DNA datasets through an MRC funded project
sequencing technology allows researchers called COMBAT-TB.
to zoom in on the function of genes in
M.tuberculosis with a view to understand Researchers recognise that decoding
the genetic signals that drive tuberculosis the gene function does not necessarily
infection and resistance. In collaboration explain drug resistance. The complexity lies
with Professors Warren and Sampson at in unraveling how the product of one gene
the Stellenbosch University Medical School, affects another or ‘regulates’ another gene.
Prof Christoffels at SANBI-UWC is analysing In the case of tuberculosis, the bacterium is
hundreds of genomic datasets from drug able to use clever methods to evade detection
sensitive and drug resistant M.tuberculosis. by going into hibernation or dormancy. The
Through this process, they are zooming in genetic basis for this process is an active
on genes that contribute to drug resistance. area of research. At SANBI-UWC, students
The Christoffels’ laboratory is developing are trying to identify genetic signals in the
computational methods to scale up these bacterial genome that drive this evading
behavior of M.tuberculosis.

22 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

JUST WHAT IS POLONY? Focus area

A few years ago a study by UWC’s Forensics supervise a PhD student to explore the problem
DNA Laboratory in the Department of of highly processed complex mixtures.
Biotechnology showed that components of Carlotta Pietroni, originally from Italy, was
dried meat and biltong in local stores were not selected to authenticate polony using the
always declared. DNA metabarcoding approach. The PhD
project is funded by the Centre of Excellence
At the time Professor Maria Eugenia in Food Security at UWC.
D’Amato realised that undeclared species in
semi-processed food - like kangaroo meat Most often applied to environmental samples
passed off as ostrich - could be construed as to analyse biodiversity, DNA metabarcoding is
fraud. She further posited that the possibility novel in the field of food control.
of fraud was even higher when the elements
making up a meat product were highly It is used to identify any species in a mixture
processed and her gaze turned to polony. of organisms. This is achieved by the amplifica-
tion within principle universal primers of a DNA
Market studies over the last 20 years region or Barcode, highly variable between
have shown South Africans with the lowest species, in combination with the use of mas-
level of income are increasingly turning to sive parallel DNA sequencing (Next-Generation
processed meat as a source of protein, with Sequencing). Samples were collected by
polony winning out as an alternative to fresh D’Amato, Pietroni and NGO Sustainable Liveli-
meat. hoods Foundation in Cape Town supermarkets
and 12 other sites across the country.
A large sausage, usually consisting of a
pork and beef mixture, polony is pink to bright D’Amato points out that people have
red depending on how much food colouring the right to know what they are eating and
is used. Pietroni’s PhD findings could have an impact
on consumers’ decisions because of religious
Professor D’Amato and collaborators at practices or medical conditions such as
the University of Copenhagen’s Centre of allergies.
Geogenetics in Denmark agreed to jointly

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 23

Rising Stars 2For his PhD research Mohaimin Kasu expanded

1Adria Burrows always wanted to study on the work supervisor Professor Maria Eugenia
D’Amato started - developing a commercial Y-STR
forensics so when she enrolled at UWC she DNA profiling forensic kit for use on South African
thought she’d have to do a chemistry course. populations.

She was surprised to discover she needed to The original UWC-10plex prototype has been
enroll in biotechnology and just how wide the improved with the help of local industrial partner
forensics field is. Inqaba Biotech.

Today she is interested in ancient DNA and This updated
recently completed her Masters in Biotechnology, prototype, UniQ-
focusing on Y-SNP ancestry using high resolution Typer™ Y-10, com-
melting methods. She was looking for an bines ten Y-STR
accurate and low-cost multiplex system that loci which previous
could determine an individual’s paternal original research shows are
with emphasis placed on identifying the most markers which sig-
important African lineages. nificantly improve
discrimination
All through her Masters though, she continued amongst native
the work she started in her Honours project, which male population
was to create a storage buffer that would prevent groups in South
DNA degradation in saliva samples. Africa, compared
to the core Y-STRs
Every month, for two and a half years, Burrows of current com-
tested samples she stored in her specially created mercially available
solution at room temperature to see whether they kits.
still yielded viable DNA results, which they did. In
August 2017 she presented a poster at the 27th In forensic casework, Y-chromosome short
Congress of the International Society for Forensic tandem repeats (Y-STRs) are essential for
Genetics in Seoul, South Korea on Preservation discriminating between unrelated males and
of DNA from Saliva Samples in Suboptimal resolving the male component of female: male and
Conditions and published a paper with the male: male admixed biological evidence.
same title in the Forensic Science International:
Genetics Supplement Series. Designed on male-specific STRs (short-tandem
repeats) DNA the prototype provides two main
Starting on her PhD research at the beginning functions - firstly the resolution of sexual offenses
of 2018 Burrows utilising DNA evidence originating under various
will expand her scenarios of assault and secondly in kinship
study to try to analysis i.e. establishing paternal lineage. 
create a universal
buffer which could The advantages of this prototype is that it
be used to collect would improve the ability to discriminate between
plant or human male DNA contributors within various South
tissue samples. African populations  and provide preferable
Since she knows performance in native African populations.
her buffer works
on saliva samples It is a comparatively cheaper kit as only
Burrows wants to 10 Y-STR markers are required for sufficient
have a working discrimination compared to 17 or 23 used by
prototype kit for competitor kits plus it works faster.
sampling ready
by the end of Kasu is also one of the researchers helping
2018. to collect male DNA samples from around
southern Africa to establish a reference database
Already UWC researchers are using her of at least 5000 samples to be housed at the
solution to collect saliva samples, improving South African National BioInformatics Institute
the number of research specimens they can at UWC.
collect.

24 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

INFECTIOUS DISEASES

UWC boasts a critical mass of researchers Worryingly, these viruses can sometimes
exploring infectious diseases that impact South cause lower-respiratory tract illnesses, such as
Africa and beyond namely respiratory tract pneumonia. The latter is more common in people
infections, malaria, tuberculosis, HIV to name a few. with cardiopulmonary disease or compromised
These projects are embedded in the Department immune systems, or the elderly.
of Medical Bioscience, School of Pharmacy, South
African National Bioinformatics Institute and Human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63) is
the Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and of particular medical interest since it shares an
Metagenomics. important biological property with the deadly
SARS-coronavirus, i.e. the usage of a common
Regardless of geographic location, respiratory cellular receptor for host cell entry.
tract infections rank among the top three killers
of children under five years of age. A significant Also of extreme importance, even though
proportion of these respiratory tract infections human coronaviruses represent a significant
have no known cause. disease burden, there is currently no antiviral
strategy to combat infection.
Recently, however, a number of novel corona-
viruses have been identified as the causative Also in the Department of Medical Biosci-
agents for some of ences professor of Molecular Virology Burtram
these infections.
Coronaviruses are a Fielding is spearhead-
large family of RNA ing research into the
viruses that includes pathogenecity of
viruses that may cause coronavirus-NL63 in
a range of illnesses humans with a long
in humans, from the term view of develop-
common cold to severe ing vaccines for this
acute respiratory human pathogen.
syndrome (SARS).
Africa is research-
Viruses of this ing antimicrobial
family also cause a drug-resistant endo-
number of diseases in genous opportunistic
animals but have been, infections such as
until the outbreak when an imbalance
of SARS, of limited occurs in the normal
interest to researchers. microbiota of the
They are typically not the first, second or even oral cavity and
third pathogen that laboratories search for when vagina.
looking for possible causes of what’s known
as severe acute respiratory-tract infections, or These microbes do not usually cause infection
SARs. and live in symbiosis with the host, but may be
altered when the patient’s immune system is
As a result, no one knows quite how common compromised as in HIV, diabetes and pregnancy,
human coronavirus infections are. But Principal causing opportunistic infections.
Investigator of Maternal Endogenous Infectious
Studies and Professor of Medical Microbiology, Because of the emergence of antimicrobial
Charlene Africa, suspects that if we do start resistance, UWC is researching the use of specific
screening for human coronaviruses, we would find plant extracts for future drug development.
a high rate of incidence.
Prof Africa is currently working with a
With the exception of SARS-CoV and MERS- USA based company to evaluate one of their
CoV, human coronaviruses usually cause mild compounds for use against azole-resistant
to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses of Candida species. She is also involved in an
short duration. Symptoms may include runny epidemiological surveillance study with health
nose, cough, sore throat and fever. and infection control practitioners in Libya to
characterise resistant Gram-negative bacilli
which are transmitted in hospital-acquired
infections.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 25

Rising Stars 2Palesa Makoti is in her first year of PhD

1Bianca Gordon completed her BSc in research on the nucleocapsid protein, one of
the viral proteins that makes up the Human
medical bioscience but honed in on virology Coronavirus NL63.
and immunology when she did her honours and
masters studies The title of her thesis in progress is The
in Prof Bertram production of cytokines in whole blood cultures
Fielding’s virology following exposure to the Nucleocapsid protein
lab. (N) of the Human Coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63)
and SARS Coronavirus. 
She has been
funded through She hopes to characterise immune responses
the NRF since her against the Nucleocapsid protein of HCoV-
honours studies NL63 and SARS-CoV expressed in a Baculovirus
and when she Expression System, by measuring the production
started on her of certain cytokine biomarkers in serum.
PhD research she
was able to access The nucleocapsid is abundant in infected
the NRF Scarce cells so it is involved in many processes that are
Skills Bursary as involved in the
well as the Poliomyelitis Research Fund. virus’ life cycle.
The nucleocapsid
Gordon is in the second year of her PhD binds directly to
study and hopes to finish by September 2018. the RNA of the
Her project title: Structure Protein of Human coronavirus and
Coronovirus NL63. forms a protective
shell, so it is
Gordon is looking at different ways of important for the
characterising the nucleocapsid protein, at reproduction of
expression and where it localises. the virus.

The nucleocapsid protein is one of the most Working on
studied coronovirus  structural proteins - it is insect cells Makoti
highly expressed in infected cells and evokes a has been using
strong immune response in the host.  the Baculovirus
Expression System to clone and express the
Gordon is working on characterising aspects protein into a virus system because she wanted
of the nucleocapis protein, by expressing N (in to produce the protein in its most native form
mammalian systems) and analysing N protein and needed the higher yields, and then
localisation signals. She is also working on another screen blood samples to assess the immune
HCoV-NL63 structural protein, the Membrane response.
(M) protein, which she expresses in a Baculoviral
system. She will be examining the protein-protein Using immunofluorescence to
interactions of M and N. The antibodies used for track the protein localisation
detection and characterisation of N and M also she is interested in seeing whether
form a part of her  PhD project, the generation it localises in the cytoplasm or
of monoclonal antibodies to HCoV-NL63 N and nucleosis as other studies have
M proteins.
suggested.
Determining the localisation of the protein
goes to characterisation of the virion and its She hopes to present her findings on
components, important in understanding the characterisation  of the Nucleocapsid protein of
pathogenesis of the HCoV-NL63. HCoV-NL63 and SARS-CoV, and the production
of cytokines in whole blood cultures following
Gordon hopes to attend the Viruses 2018: incubation with the N protein of HCoV-NL63
Breakthroughs in Viral Replication conference in and SARS-CoV at the Breakthroughs in Viral
Barcelona, Spain in 2018 where she would want to Replication conference in Barcelona, Spain in
present on the NCoV-NL63 Nucleocapsid protein 2018.
localisation as well the generation of N-specific
monoclonal antibodies.

26 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

Rising Stars 4While working on her masters degree in

3Currently working on his postdoctoral research in Periodontics at UWC, Cathy Nisha John worked
among HIV+ patients with relatively low levels of
medical microbiology, DR Pedro Abrantes is CD4 counts. She became interested in learning
excited by the research opportunities offered on more about the mode of action of oral microbes
the African continent. The high burden of disease in people with severe immunosuppression and
in Africa provides researchers with opportunities decided to widen her horizons.
to tackle this challenge and can lead to cutting
edge research that no one else is doing. She is currently working on her PhD under the
supervision of microbiologist Professor Charlene
While so much of the research has a huge Africa in UWC’s Medical Bioscience programme
sense of novelty because it is being done at on an emerging issue in the field of medicine.
UWC for the first time, his particular studies are
yielding important information regarding drug Her thesis topic is Antifungal Susceptibility of
resistance. K21 Antimicrobial Compound Against Fluconazole
Resistant Candida Isolates in HIV+ Patients. She
His PhD research was on characterising the has been awarded a grant from KHG fiteBac
Candida species that colonise the oral mucosa of Technology (USA) to pursue her PhD which she
HIV+ African patients and he conducted it in Cape hopes to conclude by 2019.
Town and Cameroon. While there were regional
differences in the resistance patterns of the Candida species have been detected in about
different species he isolated, his research showed 75% of HIV-infected individuals in the Western
that there is a trend of these microorganisms Cape, South Africa, compared to 68% in HIV-
not to respond to prescription antifungals. Dr. negative patients.
Abrantes published his research findings and
more recently a systematic review on Candida Fluconazole is one of the commonly used
antifungal drug resistance in sub-Saharan Africa, antifungal agents distributed for the treatment of
with Professor Charlene Africa. oropharyngeal candidiasis in patients. Widespread
and repeated use of azoles has been implicated
 He is currently involved in research projects as the reason for the emergence of fluconazole
on the development of drug resistance in resistant Candida species which has led to an
microorganisms affecting at-risk population increased incidence of mortality and morbidity
groups, the potential use of local plants that due to fungal opportunistic infections.
have been used traditionally for thousands of
years and the use of alternative compounds in Hence the urgency to develop new antimicrobial
the fight against infections that do not respond compounds for treating opportunistic fungal
to conventional therapies. infections which show resistance to fluconazole.

Next he wants to do research on microbial Specifically her study aims to evaluate the
biofilms, by examining how microorganisms antifungal effect of compound K21, developed by
growing together respond to different conventional Dr. Kirk Kimmerling, as an alternative to azoles in
and alternative antimicrobial combinations. treating resistant oral Candida infections in HIV+
patients.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 27

NANOSCIENCE

In 2004, the Royal Society and Royal Academy these properties of a drug, and therefore
of Engineering defined nanoscience and significantly improve the drug’s efficacy.
nanotechnology as follows: “Nanoscience is the
study of phenomena and manipulation of materials Our applications of Nanobiotechnology in
at atomic, molecular and macromolecular diagnostics entail the identification of suitable
scales, where properties differ significantly from disease biomarkers and the development of
those at a larger scale. Nanotechnologies are nanoparticles functionalised with biomolecules
the design, characterisation, production and (e.g. peptides, antibodies and DNA aptamers) that
application of structures, devices and systems by can facilitate specific biomolecular recognition
controlling shape and size at nanometre scale.” of such biomarkers and the subsequent
development of rapid diagnostic systems.
In this context the research activities of
the DST/Mintek Nanotechnology Innovation More than half of the South African population
Centre, the Biolabels Node in the Department live in poverty. Poverty related diseases such
of Biotechnology, can be defined as Nanotech- as TB, HIV and cervical cancer contribute
nology, and more specifically Nanobiotechnology significantly to South Africa’s disease burden.
with the aim of developing These diseases can be treated more effectively
bio-nanomaterials for appli-
cations in therapeutics and if diagnosed early. Although
diagnostics. diagnostic systems are available
to diagnose these diseases,
Physical properties related to improvements related to the
the solubility, stability, absorp- cost, reliability and complexity
tion, distribution and potency could still be made.
of drugs can significantly
affect the efficiency of a drug. We therefore apply Nano-
Nanotechnology-based drug biotechnology to develop rapid
delivery systems can enhance diagnostic systems that can
address these limitations in
current diagnostic systems.

28 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

CLEAN WATER Focus area

Prof Leslie Petrik leads and system to treat a local textile plant’s waste
has independently developed the water to prove the concept on campus. Next
Environmental and Nano Sciences they propose to demonstrate the technology
Research group in the Department of at the Bellville waste water treatment plant.
Chemistry at UWC since 2003 to do post
graduate research in nanoscience, with a The industrial partner who has supplied
focus on developing functional materials for much of the equipment used in the cavitation
environmental remediation and sustainable system, BioFuelsON, is also collaborating with
development. the Group on a nanophase catalyst project for
use in the biofuels industry.
Petrik co-supervises a group of B.Tech
Chemical Engineering students from the They use coal fly ash waste from power
Cape Peninsula University of Technology who stations to make zeolites which are then
are working on a cavitation system that will used as a catalyst to convert waste oil into
generate free radicals in water to break down diesel.
persistent organic pollutants.
One of Petrik’s MSc students has taken the
These students work with UWC PhD zeolites, loading them with silver and mixed
candidate Kassim Badmus who is enhancing them into clay which was then used to make
the process by introducing iron nanoparticles a pot to filter drinking water. The Group is in
which he has stabilised with indigenous plant the process of registering the patent for the
material. antimicrobial ceramics.

Badmus has stabilised and optimised his
particles to be used in the Fenton process
which enhances the production of the free
radicals. If the cavitation process alone targets
up to 60% of the pollutants, the enhanced
Fenton process increases the breakdown of
organic pollutants to above 90%.

Already Badmus has used his enhanced
Fenton process combined with the cavitation

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 29

Rising Stars 2Born and bred in Mpumalanga Province Nicole

1JODI FOWLER is working on her Masters in the Remaliah Sibuyi completed her Masters in
Biochemistry at the University of Limpopo before
Department of Medical Bioscience, focusing on coming down to Cape Town to study for a PhD in
carbon quantum dots. Biotechnology at UWC.

Used in biomedicine for their fluorescence Sibuye’s PhD research focused on develop-
emission properties, carbon quantum dots have ment of a targeted nanotheraphy for the treatment
excited the research community because of their of obesity to counter the drawbacks associated
use in bio-imaging, catalysis and smart drug with currently used anti-obesity drugs.
delivery systems.
The therapy was designed to target obesity
Fowler however, is more interested in whether markets to reduce side effects and increase the
the carbon quantum dots have any effect on the specificity and efficacy of the drug.
immune system.
She used nanoparticles as a delivery agent
An asthmatic herself, the 24-year-old is with targeting and therapeutic peptides attached.
particularly sensitive to changes in her environ- The effects of the nanoparticles were tested in
ment and curious about the things she cannot an in vitro cell model with this particular strategy
see, which nevertheless affect her in unknown showing improved efficacy and specificity and
ways. therefore providing a proof of concept that
targeted nanotherapy is a plausible strategy in
So far she has found that carbon the treatment of obesity.
quantum dots do act as an immuno-
Part of this work was published in the
stimulant, albeit at very high Journal of Nanomedicine as the article Peptide-
concentrations. functionalised nanoparticles for the selective
induction of apoptosis in target cells.
Still this finding is promising and will form
part of her PhD studies when she gets to that Currently Sibuye is working as a postdoctoral
point. fe l l ow u n d e r t h e DST- NRF P ro fe ss i o n a l
Development Programme at Mintek (Nano-
Carbon quantum dots have several ways minerals Group), in collaboration with the Nano-
of entering the body and do pass naturally out technology Innovation Centre’s Biolabels Unit.
of the system. Currently Fowler’s work
is laboratory based under controlled conditions She is continuing the research she started with
and in vivo testing is very far down the line. her PhD project - now using the same targeted
nanoparticles to treat diet induced obesity in
UWC’s longstanding collaboration with rats.
Missouri State University Colombia has yielded
a useful partner for Fowler since one of their Sibuye is keen to find a permanent research
professors has offered to help research the position focusing on diagnostics and treatment
characterisation of the nanoparticles in different for human diseases such as cancer and obesity.
media.

30 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

non-communicable DISEASES

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) research, where unobvious yet biologically and
are also referred to as chronic diseases and biomedically plausible links have been prioritised
have a long duration with slow progression. and progressed into further studies.
These diseases can be divided into four types
namely cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic An example is the use of the technology in a
respiratory diseases (e.g. asthma) and diabetes. published collaborative study with the Department
NCDs are usually caused by genetic factors or of Psychiatry at Stellenbosch University that
lifestyle. According to STATS SA, NCDs caused identified a potential mechanism of action of a
more than half of the registered deaths in drug used in the treatment of post-traumatic
South Africa in 2015. stress disorder (PTSD). This has led to another
proteomics-based PTSD collaboration with
At the South African National Bioinformatics researchers at the Institute for Systems Biology
Institute (SANBI-UWC) our researchers are and the Pacific North West Research Institute
using genomics big data and new computational in Seattle. Gamieldien has also developed a
methods to understand the contribution of genetics prototype genome based approach for diagnosing
to NCDs and to identify potential biomarkers for and personalising treatment of atypical diabetes
risk and for their early detection. Addressing such as Mature Onset Diabetes of the Young
the difficult problem of finding meaning and (MODY) and ketosis prone diabetes. Feedback
translational value in genomics big data, a central and insights gained at the British Columbia
focus of Prof Junaid Gamieldien and his team’s Cancer Agency in Vancouver indicated that the
research is the ongoing development of a semantic concept could be further extended to support
technology that automatically generates novel cancer genomics research and translation, and
biological hypotheses from omics experiments development has started in that direction. The
using ontologies, millions of integrated genetic technology has also been applied to identifying
and biomedical facts and a semantic search the genetic causes of muscular dystrophy and
concept simulating cognitive processes used ALS, showing its potential to play an important
by scientists when evaluating findings. This has role in making genomic diagnoses in unexplained
proven especially useful in our disease genomics cases of rare and atypical diseases.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 31

Focus area

DIABETES AND MALE INFERTILITY

Professor Ralf Henkel is a member of the Medical Bioscience Department’s
Reproductive Biology Group researching Metabolic Syndrome - a group of disorders
associated with diabetes and decreased sperm quality.

The cluster of conditions such as high A certain amount of oxidants are necessary
blood sugar, excess weight around the waist, in the body to trigger apoptosis - programmed
high blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol cell death - which is a physiological system to
levels can lead to lowered testosterone levels eliminate possibly cancerous cells. Too much
and a systemic inflammatory response which oxidants in the system though can help cancer
elevates the oxidative status in the body. cells survive.

Oxidative stress can damage spermatazoa He is interested therefore in pinpointing the
on a genetic level, making it useless for exact healthy range for how many oxidants are
fertilisation. needed in the system, especially as it pertains
to male fertility.
Cells normally function at a slightly
reduced oxidative state and depending on He recently obtained a MIOXSIS machine
the needs and physiological conditions of which measures the balance of oxidants and
the body, a certain amount of oxidants are antioxidants in the system and he wants to use
necessary to trigger physiological reactions. it in his male fertility research, if he can obtain
For example oxidants are necessary to trigger more sensors for the machine.
reactions such as capacitation, which is a
preparatory stage for fertilisation. If your Cytokines - the regulating compounds
body’s antioxidants scavenge all the oxidants for leucocytes - can decrease testosterone
then the spermatazoa cannot undergo secretion, and men with diabetes have been
capacitation. found to have much higher levels of pro-
inflammatory cytokines in their system.
Henkel points out that there is an antioxidant
paradox. The body needs antioxidants such as In addition to oxidative status research
Vitamin C or vitamin E for normal physiological Henkel is also researching why men with
functions but overdosing can be damaging. diabetes have such elevated cytokine levels.

32 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

Rising Stars 2Dr Mahjoubeh Jalali has always wanted

1Cissampelos capensis is a sprawling shrub that to understand the mechanism of disease and
its effect on human health. She is fascinated by
grows only in South Africa and Namibia, known as how next generation sequencing has opened
dawidjieswortel (root of David) and anecdotally up new avenues for researchers to explore the
used for a variety of ills. human genome and better understand how DNA
variation affects diseases.
Listening to the head of UWC’s Department
of Medical Bioscience, Ralf Henkel, talk about the The 31-year-old Capetonian graduated with
plant being used by local herbalists to treat male a BSc in Biotechnology from UWC in 2007 and
infertility problems, Salem Shalaweh decided then completed a M.MedSc in Pathology at
to become the first scientist to research whether Stellenbosch University.
the plant or its extract did indeed have an effect
on human spermatazoa. Her passion for health genomics took her
back to UWC where she completed a PhD in
Shalaweh concluded that the rhizome extract Bioinformatics.
did trigger an effect of sperm capacitation when
administered at a certain level as well as DNA After completing her PhD, Jalali did 3 years of
fragmentation when the dosage was increased postdoctoral research at SANBI-UWC exploring
beyond a certain point and he is now putting his diseases such as ALS, Miyoshi and Limb-Girdle
finishing touches on his PhD thesis. Muscular Dystrophy, where whole genome and
exome sequencing together with cognitive model-
The high quality of Shalaweh’s MSc thesis ling of disease were applied in order to develop
netted him a scholarship from the Libyan standard operating procedures for selecting ge-
government to continue his PhD studies under netic variants with likely clinical relevance.
the joint supervision of Henkel and Professor
Jacques Joubert of the School of Pharmacy. She also worked on a number of collaborative
projects with several institutes and universities
Parts of his research have been published and across South Africa, including The South African
he has travelled to places like Malaysia, Spain, Human Genome Project and Investigation of
Denmark and Iran to deliver papers at various differential expression in PTSD patients: an RNA-
conferences. SEQ study, in collaboration with Stellenbosch
University.
In addition to studying the dawidjieswortel
Shalaweh has collaborated on the work of fellow Joining SANBI-UWC proved a turning point
PhD students in fields such as research on the as she came to understand how bioinformatics
aqueous root extract of Mondia White on Human is reforming our understanding of human
Sperm Functionality. genomics, disease and basic research and she
hopes to one day be able to apply state of the art
For his post doctoral research Shalaweh wants methodologies and technologies in personalised
to investigate how to turn the dawidjieswortel diagnoses, prognosis and treatment of patients
into a medicine that can be used on the one with complex and rare diseases.
hand as a contraceptive when tracking the DNA
fragmentation effect, and as a possible IVF aid Currently she is gaining experience as a
when tracking the sperm capacitation effect. postdoctoral research fellow at the Pacific
Research Institute in Seattle, US.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 33

NUCLEAR SCIENCE

The applied nuclear physics group in students drawn from the Material Science degree
UWC’s Department of Physics and Astronomy (MatSci) and Accelerator and Nuclear Sciences
seeks to understand how nuclear collectivity degree (MaNus) courses. These two courses,
arises and how this affects fundamental questions presented in collaboration with iThemba Labs and
such as what is the nuclear force, how nuclei the University of Zululand, have greatly increased
excite and decay and how elements are formed the number of black students studying in the
in our universe. nuclear sciences field in South Africa.

Discovering more about the building blocks The applied nuclear physics group collaborates
of our world requires applied training, hands-on with several research institutions such as iThemba
experimentation and world-class equipment. Labs in Faure, the European Organization for
Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland and
In November every year for the past 7 years Canada’s particle accelerator centre TRIUMF.
the Department of Nuclear Physics and Nuclear
Astrophysics has presented The Tastes of Nuclear 2017 saw the first Africa-led experiment
Physics seminar series. This annual seminar being performed at HIE-ISOLDE (CERN) by 8
series is a forum to improve the skill of UWC UWC postgraduate students plus one from the
postgraduate students in advanced mathematics, university of Zululand under the supervision of
nuclear physics and astrophysics. Professor Nico Orce. All of these postgraduate
students studied through the MaNus/MatSci
World class physicists descend on the campus honours/masters programme at UWC.
to deliver advanced lectures and interact with
students, helping to build self confidence and The experiment was the result of a five year
disseminate the latest exciting news in the field long UWC / CERN relationship which was aided by
to encourage them towards furthering their a Memorandum of Understanding between CERN
education. and the National Research Foundation, initiated
by Prof Krish Bharuth-Ram, which now allows
Attendees include students from institutions any South African scientist to lead experiments
throughout South Africa, augmenting the UWC at CERN.

34 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

HEAR THE LION ROAR Focus area

2017 saw the culmination of a long term stable beam facility. Additionally GAMKA’s
project in UWC’s Department of Physics and Lanthanum Bromide detectors (ALBA) allow
Astronomy. A UWC-led consortium of uni- for a high efficiency that the other facility
versities (including Stellenbosch University (RCNP at Osaka University) currently does
and the Universities of Witwatersrand and not possess. iThemba Labs is also currently
Zululand) was awarded a R35million grant by building a new electron spectrometer and a
the National Research Foundation to purchase radioactive ion beam facility.
a nuclear spectrometer.
This expands the diversity of experiments
The GAMma-ray spectrometer for that can be initiated at iThemba Labs
Knowledge in Africa will be housed at iThemba because they will soon be able to do
LABS in Faure, which is the largest national complete, comprehensive, high resolution,
nuclear sciences facility in Africa. (Gamka is high efficiency spectroscopy by using all
also a Khoisan word for “lion”.) three spectrometers.

The spectrometer is a group of detectors One of Triambak’s new research projects
and this new array will include four clover involving Gamka will involve experiments to
detectors made of high purity Germanium and measure very short lifetimes of excited states
17 Lanthanum Bromide detectors. of nuclei. Such experiments are relevant for
a better understanding of nuclear reactions
SARChI Chair in Nuclear Physics Professor in exploding stars.
Smarajit Triambak says access to GAMKA
means UWC researchers will now be able to
delve more deeply into mainly two subfields
of study - nuclear structure and nuclear
astrophysics.

The GAMKA spectrometer will enable South
African researchers to make an impact on the
field of stable beam experiments as iThemba
Labs will be one of only two places in the
world that houses the gamma-ray detectors
coupled with a magnetic spectrometer at a

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 35

Rising Stars 2The first UWC student to ever be awarded a

1CRAIG MEHL received a bursary from the CERN bursary, Kenzo Abrahams initially did
his Masters in Computer Science.
National Science Foundation in the USA under
the title Investigating Nuclear Structure with He wanted to be a computational physicist
Fast Neutrons as a Research Scholar with the but discovered the attraction of nuclear science
University of Kentucky Accelerator Laboratory. when he got an A in supervisor Professor Nico
Orce’s quantum mechanics and nuclear physics
He took up a year long residency in Kentucky, course. Hence the move to the Department of
but remained a UWC PhD student. Physics and Astronomy to start his PhD at the
beginning of 2016.
At the University of Kentucky Mehl gained
experience and research skills working with one Abrahams and several other students
of the few on-campus accelerators in the world accompanied Orce to CERN in January 2016.
where he learned how to measure very short They also worked at iThemba LABS in Faure
nuclear lifetimes in the femtosecond regime. running experiments for two consecutive months
in that year. Abrahams so impressed the CERN
While working on his MSc, Mehl received an researchers that he was awarded the CERN
award for an excellent presentation during a bursary to work there for 3 months at the end
symposium entitled Few to Many Body-Systems: of 2016.
Models, Methods and Applications held in Dubna,
Russia in September 2015. He spent the time working at the Switzerland
CERN laboratory analysing the experiments done
As part of a UWC visit to Switzerland in by UWC researchers at CERN.
January 2016 Mehl became a CERN user after
an extensive safety training and workshop in In July 2017 Abrahams was part of the
Coulomb-excitation studies. first African-led experiment at HIE-ISOLDE
(CERN) and he was invited back to give an oral
During his MSc work Mehl worked on presentation on this research during the ISOLDE
Developing a Sorting Code for Coulomb-excitation (CERN) December workshop.
Data Analysis, a project crucial to UWC’s nuclear
physics group building the pipeline for new Abrahams’ research project investigates
physics research in SA and elsewhere. the shape of 66Ge and 70Se from additional
Coulomb-excitation data collected during the July
Mehl worked with his supervisor Nico Orce experiment at CERN. He will draw on not only the
on complementary beta-decay experiments in CERN results but also the work of his fellow PhD
Switzerland in May 2016 - the first time UWC students working at iThemba LABS under the
researchers took part in CERN experiments. supervision of Orce.

His PhD project, which he is currently wrapping He envisages finishing his PhD in 2018 and
up, is to study the beta decay of exotic nuclei, wants to continue his post doctoral research at
66Ge and 70Se, of relevance in the most recurrent CERN.
stellar explosions in the Universe, producing
X-rays.

This investigation will shed light onto how
nuclei change shape relatively easily from
spherical to oblate or prolate or vice versa.

36 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

OCEANS RESEARCH

Within UWC’s Department of Biodiversity and able new biosynthetic compounds i.e. leading to
Conservation Biology ocean research is spread potential new drug discovery.
across different areas of specialisation including
offshore marine biology and marine benthic At the Institute for Microbiology Biotechnology
biodiversity. and Metagenomics (IMBM) marine micro-
organisms are considered an untapped source of
The study of all things marine means looking biologically active compounds.
at the interplay between taxonomy and genetics;
patterns and drivers of alpha diversity; climate Currently, most marine natural products
change impacts on coastal ecosystems, estuaries research focuses on marine invertebrates which
and kelp beds; and autecology. are known to produce a plethora of potent natural
products, including antibiotics and anti-tumour
The diversity of marine organisms tends to agents.
increase from west to east around South Africa’s
coastline. While this pattern of diversity broadly However, recent advances in molecular biology
reflects temperature changes around the coast, show microorganisms are the key drivers of marine
at smaller scales of resolution in both time ecosystems and many of the natural products
and space it reflects vagaries in the total attributed to marine invertebrates are in fact
environment. produced by microbial symbionts.

Understanding the factors that drive organismal Research within the IMBM focuses on the
communities at all scales is important, not least discovery and development of pharmacologically
because it allows for better management. active novel compounds from marine
Additionally ocean currents drive genetic endosymbionts through a multi-disciplinary
connectivity between estuaries and allow plants approach.
to move as climates and estuaries change.
Bioactivity-guided isolation of compounds with
Estuaries support large amounts of biodiversity activities against multi-drug resistant pathogens
and understanding the role of mangroves, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, as well as
seagrass and salt marsh in maintaining fish compounds suitable as anti-fungal, anti-cancer,
populations is key to ensuring the sustainability anti-inflammation, as well as central nervous
of these organisms. disease treatments is pursued.

Currently some of the research includes proj- Additionally, systems biology approaches, such
ects on taxonomy (for example of sponges) which as genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics, are
can lead to the identification of potentially valu- employed to develop the drug discovery pipeline,
and to deliver new medicines within a much
shorter time-frame.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 37

Focus area

UNDER THE SEA same one occurring in Japan, South Africa,
Australia and New Zealand because their
Coralline algae - calcified red seaweeds anatomy and morphology looked similar.
- are not easily recognised because of their
morphology. Inflexible, they calcify, making Maneveldt and his PhD students share
them appear as hard as rock but they are still specimens with Gabrielsen in the US where
living seaweed. the DNA testing is carried out, while traditional
histology is taught at UWC, with students
Cosmopolitan, they appear in all oceans incorporating both kinds of results into
and are particular to certain regions. research.

Marine biologist Professor Gavin Maneveldt They are furthering what Maneveldt and
collaborates with the University of North Gabrielsen published in 2015 when they
Carolina Chapel Hill’s Professor Paul Gabrielsen unequivocally stated that not only have
to teach their PhD students two ways of
distinguishing between coralline algae.

Until recently coralline algae were described we underestimated the biodiversity of
using only anatomy and morphology but global coralline flora by up to four times but
over the last 2 decades using DNA sequencing species are more endemic than previously
to distinguish between different types has reported.
led to many discoveries.
Coralline algae are important to the
It was wrongly assumed the same species biosphere, acting as carbon sinks for carbon
was distributed over wide ranges with the dioxide trapped in the ocean. They also serve
as food to certain marine organisms and cue
particular shelled organisms to move from
larval to final visible stage.

The shelled organisms then feed on fleshy
seaweed, keeping the slow growing coralline
algae clean of faster growing seaweed that
could smother them.

As oceans become less alkaline the
coralline algae decalcify which could
mitigate ocean acidification, but it is a slow
process and more study of this balance is
required.

38 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

Rising Stars 2Robert Schlegel was initially going to study

1Dr Anusha Rajkaran specialises in plant biodiversity in kelp forests and the impact of
temperature on those kelp forests. Only after
ecology in estuarine environments but as he started did he realise there was no scientific
a lecturer has discovered a real passion for documentation on temperature fluctuations in
supervising postgraduate students. the temperature of coastal waters off South Africa.
So, he set about to first determine how to measure
She started lecturing at Rhodes University in these temperature fluctuations, then document
Grahamstown before moving to UWC in December them and lastly investigate what is causing it.
2015 and has supervised 14 honours students
since 2012. He has just submitted his PhD thesis investi-
gating the causes of marine heatwaves (MHW)
Her PhD research looked at the status of along the coast of South Africa.
mangrove forests in South Africa. One of the
rarest types of forest to be found in the country, A MHW is when the water temperature at a
mangroves are only found in estuaries - the given location is in the top 10% of temperatures
meeting place between land and sea. While they ever recorded there for five or more consecutive
have a wide range of ecosystem services they are days. Using a range of different statistical analyses
vulnerable to human activities such as harvesting, he was able to determine broad patterns that
freshwater abstraction and pollution. occur during these events, which are likely the
driving factors.
Rajkaran’s study was the first in SA to measure
the rate at which the mangroves grow and to Schlegel took a roundabout way to get to
determine if the harvesting of mangroves in the the Department of Biodiversity and Conservation
Eastern Cape was sustainable. She found that Biology (BCB). He started off with a Bachelor’s
mangroves in SA only grow a few centimetres degree in Psychology at the University of
a year, much slower than mangroves growing Washington, USA before working for several
closer to the equator and that harvesting rates at years. He then completed an MSc at UCT in
that time (her PhD was completed in 2011) were Marine Science and worked as a research assistant
unsustainable. under Professor AJ Smit at BCB before starting
on kelp forest and temperature research. He was
She received NRF funding during her studies awarded a NRF bursary for the final year of his
and has been supported by the Thuthuka Funding PhD studies.
programme - run by the NRF and the Early Career
Fellowship administered by UWC - since becoming Researching the potential causes for coastal
an academic. MHWs is Schlegel’s next focus. This would allow
for the development of more accurate mitigation
Rajkaran has presented 16 papers at national and adaptation strategies in South Africa to
and international conferences, 8 since the defend coastal ecosystems and communities from
completion of her PhD. the perils of climate change.

As the South African Representative on the
Western Indian Ocean Mangrove Network which
co-ordinates mangrove reseach in the region
she is working on cementing current research
collaborations with East Africa.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 39

WATER

One goal of water research at UWC is to rates by these plants affects surface water and
improve understanding of spatial and temporal groundwater levels.
dynamics of surface water and groundwater and
their linkages with ecosystems in arid and semi- In addition to researching information required
arid environments. for sustainable water resource management,
researchers also focus on what is in the water.
Southern African rivers are generally non-
perennial and their river flows continue to be Human activities release a large number of
modified by human activities. pollutants into the environment.

There is inadequate knowledge for predicting These pollutants are often directly released
how these human activities affect linkages into rivers via sewage, agricultural and industrial
between river flows, groundwater and ecosystem effluents or end up in water systems as runoff
functions along non-perennial rivers. water after rains.

One way UWC researchers try to improve Environmental water can therefore directly
this predictive capacity is to investigate contaminate consumers who drink the water
how representative are estimates of rainfall, or use it for recreational activities, or indirectly
evaporation and transpiration derived from from eating produce such as fruit or fish that came
earth observation satellites. into contact with contaminated water.

Under the leadership of Professor Dominic Two decades ago Professor Edmund Pool
Mazvimavi, director of UWC’s Institute of Water of UWC’s Department of Medical Bioscience
Studies, various researchers are exploring developed a screening system to monitor
how to use data from the recently launched effects of chemicals on the immune system
Sentinel satellites to determine frequencies and and this assay is now used in various countries
magnitudes of river flows for rivers without around the world as a rapid in vivo test to monitor
routine flow measurements. adverse impacts on the immune system.

Research focuses on improving our under- This system is referenced in the European
standing of water use rates of invasive alien Pharmacopoeia 2010 and in South Africa it is
plants occurring in the riparian zone and on used as a rapid method to screen water and
hill slopes as well as examining how water use other products for potential adverse effects on
the immune system.

40 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

LIVING LABORATORY Focus area

The Institute for Water Realising the community had hitherto
Studies at UWC was formed in 2009 undocumented information about water
to promote research, postgraduate resources in the area, the Institute recently
training and outreach on water welcomed a PhD candidate onto the team
resources. The Institute under- who works on communicating science to
takes research on surface water community members and collecting their
and groundwater, their linkages stories.
with ecosystem and society,
and water resources manage- Research will start bearing fruit from 2018
ment. as students wind up MSc and PhD studies,
to answer questions like just how much
One of its many projects which groundwater do invasive alien plants use
exemplifies a multi-disciplinary and where does the water in the area really
and collaborative approach is the come from.
Heuningness Catchment Research
Programme.

Covering an area of 1401 km2 and
located in the Cape Agulhus area
in the Western Province it contains
several temporary ponds and lakes -
the biggest being the Soetendalsvlei
Lake, the largest freshwater lake in
South Africa, which connects to the
Indian Ocean via the Heuningnes
River.

The programme was started
when UWC was approached by the
Breede-Gouritz Water Management
Agency to generate information
about available water resources in the
catchment area, their limitations, the
scope of the demand for water from
the local communities and what or
who the competing interests were
for water in the area.

In 2014 Institute researchers
started developing systems to monitor
weather elements, river flows, groundwater
and water quality. This has allowed more
students to spend time in the field setting
up experiments in a living system - a living
laboratory.

While the Institute’s researchers have set up
projects around South Africa, the Heuningnes
Catchment Research is where the family
meet, with up to 30 students in the field at
any given time.

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 41

Rising Stars 2Zanele Ntshidi is currently a junior researcher

1Kim Lategan has just submitted her PhD thesis in the Hydrosciences Research Group at the CSIR
and a UWC PhD candidate under the supervision
on The In-Vitro Effects of Heavy Metals and of Professor Dominic Mazvimavi, registered with
Nanoparticles on the Immune System. the Department of Earth Sciences.

Her particular interest lay in what happens Her research interest is eco-hydrology -
when people come into contact with silver nano investigating the effects of natural vegetation,
particles. Local aquatic life comes into contact commercial forests, invasive alien plants and
with silver nanoparticles released into effluent agricultural crops on water resources.
which then comes back full circle when humans
ingest the local seafood. Lategan’s interest was As water poor South Africa grapples with
piqued by the conflicting reports on the effects of climate change effective management of scarce
this particular chain of events on humans. water resources becomes more and more
important. Ntshidi hopes to complete her PhD by
She isolated the cell culture of macrophages 2019 and in the long term wants to do research
(RAW 264.7 cells) which would be triggered by that contributes to the formulation of policies that
the silver nanoparticles and identified biomarkers encourage efficient use of the country’s natural
(Macrophage Inflammatory Proteins) to monitor, resources.
but also looked at how the human whole blood
cell culture would react to get an overall picture Her Master’s degree topic quantified the
of the immune system response. impact of deep rooted Prosopis spp. invasions
on groundwater supply to communities in an arid
Lategan concluded that high concentrations catchment area in the Northern Cape.
of heavy metals and nanoparticles do modulate
cells. Now, for her PhD research she is investigating
how water use, specifically evapotranspiration
The 27-year-old was funded by the NRF and (evaporation + transpiration) in apple orchards Is
a Chieta Bursary for her honours, then NRF for partitioned between beneficial water use (used
Masters and her PhD. to produce fruit) and non-beneficial water use
(evaporated from the orchard floor).
Recently she travelled to Barcelona, Spain
for the International Conference on Immunology The study aims to highlight potential water
and Immunotechnology (Immunology - 2017) savings that can be derived by minimising
where she delivered a paper on The Effects of nonbeneficial water uses under the current
Silver Nanoparticles on Raw Cells and Human orchard management practices.
Blood Cell Culture. She realised that while most
of the researchers interested in the same field At the end of the study she hopes to derive
were looking at the cells on a molecular level, her irrigation guidelines to help farmers produce more
particular focus on biomarkers was unique. fruit while using less water.

Lategan has applied to do her postdoctoral She hopes to achieve this through the
research in order to investigate what happens development of a multiple source water use model
when silver nanoparticles are introduced to media that partitions evapotranspiration into tree water
other than water. use, cover crop transpiration and evaporation
from the soil.

42 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

NICHE TOYS

HIVE EMU

(Highly Immersive Visualization (Electron Microscope Unit)
Environment)
The EMU is an interdisciplinary service delivery
A 3D visualisation facility within the Earth unit that provides electron microscopy expertise
Science Department of UWC, Hive is aimed at to not only the UWC community but also other
creating a modernised virtual environment for tertiary institutions, research councils and
advanced research in academia. industry.

The stereoscopic 3D capabilities of the Hive Electron microscopy comprises scanning
allows for unique data visualisation, analysis and electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission
interpretation through various software modelling electron microscopy (TEM).
techniques, especially, but not limited to, Earth
Sciences. High Resolution Scanning Electronic Microscopy
(HR-SEM) allows for the imaging of a specimen
The nature in which certain softwares allows surfaces at magnifications up to 300 000 times
for 3D visualisation of geological data (such the original scale of the sample. This implies that
as seismics), provides students with a unique surface structures as small as 5 nm (where 1 nm =
advantage in interpretation and analysis. Because 1 millionth of a milimetre) can be observed using
of this facility, UWC petroleum geology students the high-resolution scanning electron microscopy.
were given the opportunity to participate in In addition to imaging such small objects, one
international competitions such as the Imperial can also determine the elemental composition
Barrel Awards (IBA), and have won the African of a specimen using a technique Called Energy
leg of this prestigious international petroleum Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) in the SEM.
geology competition for two years in a row.
High Resolution Transmission Electron
Outside users are welcomed to use this Microscopy (HR-TEM) allows for the imaging of the
technology which could be useful for any field internal structure of specimens at magnifications
of research where visualisation (in 2D or 3D) with a resolution of up to 0.1 nm. This implies
provides a vital role for data analysis. that structures such as cellular nuclei and
membranes (useful for biologists) as well as
CONTACT atomic order (useful for materials scientists) are
Hive Manager: Mrs Yafah Williams imaged in a high resolution transmission electron
tel: +2721 959 9750 microscope.
[email protected]
The EMU hosts a state-of-the-art Tecnai F20
Department Administrator: Mrs Wasielah Davids HR-TEM, equipped with a Gatan energy filter
tel: +2721 959 2223 for electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS),
[email protected] Fiscione high angular annular dark-field detector
(HAADF) and a EDAX liquid nitrogen cool Si(Li)
detector for EDS studies.

CONTACT
Natasha Kensley
tel: +2721 959 9461
[email protected]

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 43

Single Cell Genomics RADAR
Platform
(Residentiary Apparatus for
When the Illumina miSeq sequencer was acquired Device Application Research)
in 2012 to serve as the Next Generation Sequencing
platform for the local scientific community it was A multi-process zone ultrahigh vacuum
unique in the country. deposition system RADAR is used to deposit
thin films and nano-structures for application in
A number of academic and commercial functional devices, such as solar cells.
clients employed the facility for applications
such as targeted resequencing, metagenomics, Solar cells are composed of more than one
small genome sequencing and targeted gene material and each layer of material needs to be
expression profiling. deposited in a different chamber, which is possible
with the RADAR.
The more recently acquired BD Fluorescence
Activated Cell Sorter (FACS) Aria III - a flow Condensed Matter Physicists, Chemists,
cytometer and cell sorter - was added to this Materials Scientists, Chemical Engineers, Materials
platform and launched as the Single Cell Genomics Engineers and Electronic Engineers interested in
platform, the first of its kind in South Africa. functional devices based on thin films and nano-
structures are welcome to contact the Department
A special feature in this instrument is the of Physics and Astronomy to find out more about
inclusion of a near-UV laser. using the system to further their research.
CONTACT
Unique in the country, this near-UV laster op- Prof CJ Arendse
tion offers new research opportunities in flow cy- tel: 021 959 2327
tometry related to DNA and stem cell research. [email protected]
Dr TFG Muller
Marrying the high-throughput nature of the tel: +2721 959 2328
MiSeq and the FACS Aria III establishes the first [email protected]
single cell genomics platform in South Africa.

Single cell genomics has been identified as one
of the nine trends that are expected to shape the
life sciences markets in the next 5 years, impacting
diagnostics, drug discovery and development,
personalised medicine, forensic and agricultural
and animal research, among others.

While most of the current work on the
instrument is centered on IMBM related research,
the platform is available to all South African
researchers and industry.

CONTACT

Lonnie van Zyl
tel: +2721 959 9235
[email protected]

44 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

NMR National Agricultural
Proteomics Research
(Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Service Unit
spectroscopy)
UWC’s Proteomics Unit contains a range of
Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy instruments accessible to postgraduate students,
exploits the magnetic properties of selected academics, researchers and industry clients.
atomic nuclei in molecules, nanomaterials or These include:
proteins. NMR spectroscopy can offer detailed * Bruker UltrafleXtreme MALDI TOF/TOF/MS
information on the chemical structure, dynamics,
reaction state and chemical environment of for protein identification by Peptide mass fin-
molecules since the spins of selected atomic nuclei gerprinting; polymer analysis; MALDI imaging
are very sensitive to changes in its environment. for direct label-free measurements imaging
NMR is mostly used by chemists and biochemists of proteins, peptides, lipids, metabolites and
to investigate the properties of organic molecules drugs from tissue specific samples; MALDI
and other samples provided the nuclei in these Biotyping which enables molecular identifi-
molecules and samples possess nuclear spin. cation and classification of microorganisms
like bacteria, yeasts and fungi; and molecular
UWC has 2 instruments: a Bruker Avance III HD weight distribution of compounds/proteins.
400 MHz and a 500 MHz. Both are used for solu- * Bruker nano HPLC and Proteineer fc II for
tion state NMR, with the 400 MHz being the ‘work peptide fractionation for offline MALDI MS/
horse’ and used mainly for routine analyses. MS protein identification (analysis for 1D SDS
PAGE or in solution digests).
The 500 MHz has a triple resonance solution * Bruker Image Prep - Matrix Deposition Device
state probe but this instrument also has solid state for MALDI Imaging.
NMR capabilities. UWC has two probes for solid * Ammersham Ettan IPGphor II and BioradProtein
state analyses, a 4mm BBO and a 2.5 mm Trigam- IEF cell for 2D SDS PAGE analysis (gel based
ma probe (one of which is capable of acquiring 3D protein separation).
data - the only one of its kind in Africa). As the unit operates as a research service facility
students, academics, researchers and industry
NMR spectroscopy is used regularly by the clients can make use of its services for a fee.
Departments of Chemistry, Biotechnology,
Medical Biosciences and the School of Pharmacy CONTACT
as well as the SAIAMC and IMBM at UWC. Dr Ashwil Klein
Manager: National Agricultural Proteomics
It has also been used by researchers based Research and Service Unit (NAPRSU)
at Vaal University of Technology and the Council tel: 021 959 3327
for Scientific and Industrial Research and is used [email protected]
on a daily basis by Cape Peninsula University of Gadija Mohamed
Technology. Research technician (ARC)
tel: +2721 959 2066
Chemists or biochemists interested in accessing [email protected]
NMR spectroscopy are welcome to contact the
Department of Chemistry.

CONTACT
Edith Beukes
tel: +2721 959 4020
[email protected]

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 45

ONLINE REFERENCES

African Biodiversity

Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, UWC
https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/NS/Biodiversity_Conservation_Biology/Pages/Department-of-Biodi-
versity-and-Conservation-Biology---Research-Interests-and-Current-Projects.aspx
South African National Biodiversity Institute - www.sanbi.org

Agriculture

Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics - www.imbm.co.za
http://www.sanbi.ac.za/people/faculty/gordon-harkins/

Astronomy

Astrophysics at UWC:
http://www.uwcastro.org/ https://www.facebook.com/uwcastro/
https://twitter.com/UWC_Astro
Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy
http://www.idia.ac.za/ https://www.facebook.com/bigIDIA/

Computational and Mathematical Science

https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/NS/Pages/-Statistics-and-Population-Studies-Department.aspx
http://zenzeleni.net
https://www.signsupport.org

Drug Discovery

School of Pharmacy - https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/NS/Pharmacy/Pages/default.aspx
Institute for Microbial Genomics and Metagenomics - www.imbm.co.za
South African National Bioinformatics Institute - www.sanbi.ac.za

Energy

http://www.hysasystems.com
https://www.uwc.ac.za/faculties/ns/physics/pages/research.aspx

Genomics

http://imbm.co.za
http://christoffels.sanbi.ac.za
http://combattb.sanbi.ac.za
@alangchris

46 UNIVERSIT Y OF THE WESTERN CAPE

Infectious Diseases

https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/NS/Medical_BioScience/Pages/default.aspx
http://hiv.sanbi.ac.za/
http://christoffels.sanbi.ac.za

Nanoscience

http:www.nic.ac.za

Non-Communicable Diseases

http://www.sanbi.ac.za/people/faculty/junaid-gamieldien/
https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/NS/Medical_BioScience/Pages/default.aspx

Nuclear Science

https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/NS/NuclearPhysics/Pages/default.aspx
https://www.facebook.com/groups/255047904606766/about/

Oceans Research

https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/NS/Biodiversity_Conservation_Biology/Pages/About-Us.aspx
www.imbm.co.za
www.parha-sea.eu
www.oceanmedicines.eu

Water

https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/NS/Water_Studies/Pages/research-groups.aspx

FACULT Y OF NATURAL SCIENCES 47

Faculty of Natural Sciences
University of the Western Cape

Private Bag X17
Bellville 7535
South Africa

Tel: +27 (0)21 959-2255

DESIGN & LAYOUT: AMAZON MEDIA