Department of Biochemistry & Microbiology
The Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology has had a challenging 2018.
The renovations to the Biological Sciences Building started in earnest mid-year. The efforts of all staff and Postgraduate students who managed to continue with their research, despite the noise and dust, are highly commendable. Our research groups, notwithstanding the inconveniences of working in a building site, continued with their research and have produced significant outputs in student graduations and research publications.
Six (6) RUBi MSc students and PhD candidates attended the 12th CHPC National Conference in Cape Town in December 2018 to present their work, and Ms Chiamaka Jessica Okeke received 3rd best poster presentation award.
Ms Rita Boateng, RUBi first year PhD candidate attended the 1st Congress of the African Association for Research and Control of Antimicrobial Resistance (AAAMR) Bamako, Mali (26-28 February 2018) and received the best oral presentation award.
RUBi MSc student, Bertha Baye, was selected as Secretary of the Student Society of South African Society for Bioinformtics (SASBi) during the national SAGS/SASBi 2018 Symposium (16-18 October 2018).
Associate Professor Özlem Tastan Bishop spent three (3) months (January - March 2018) at Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkey, during her sabbatical leave. Her sabbatical outputs included three (3) research articles in high impact factor journals (Bioinformatics-IF:5.481; Journal of chemical information and modeling-IF:3.760; Biophysical Journal-IF:3.495).
During her visit to Sabanci University, Associate Professor Tastan Bishop also gave a research seminar, one (1) popular science seminar (FUTURE series; https://gazetesu.sabanciuniv.edu/en/2018- 02/future-seminar-series) and a workshop on homology modeling and PRIMO, a web server established by RUBi PhD candidates. The workshop included thirty-
five (35) attendees from various universities located in Istanbul.
Associate Professor Tastan Bishop was also invited to attend two (2) PhD committee meetings for project proposal/progress reports of Sabanci University students, and she was invited to give oral presentations at two (2) international conferences - 43rd FEBS Congress, Praque and 6th International Bahçe ehir University (BAU) Drug Design Congress, Istanbul, as well as a national conference - 12th CHPC National Conference.
PhD candidate, Ms Caroline Ross, developed a novel coarse-grained approach to analyse viral capsid behaviour and applied to Enterovirus 71 which can be a severe pathogen in small children and
immunocompromised adults. Ms Ross’ publication received a video highlight in Biophysical Journal.
(http://www.cell.com/biophysj/fulltext/S0006- 3495(17)35101-9).
Members of the “Living Fossils” Research team who conducted field work on the stromatolite fields on the Port Elizabeth coast.
Back row (left to right); Professor Rosie Dorrington (RU); Dr Xavier Siwe-Noundou (RU); Mr Eric Iseomonger (RU); Dr Allegra Aron (UCSD); Dr Emily Gentry (UCSD); Dr Daniel Petras (UCSD);
Front row (left to right) Professor Kerry McPhail (OSU) and Ms Mart-Mari de Bruyn (RU).
Credit: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
PhD candidate, Ms Ross-Lynn Weston collecting samples before dark. Credit: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
Collecting samples at Schoenmakerskop.
Credit: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
PhD candidates, Natasha Boël and Michaelone Vaaltyn, were accepted to present their research at a leading international conference on the Hsp90 chaperone machine in Switzerland.
PhD candidates, Laura Dingle and Abantika Chakraborty conducted international research visits to the laboratories of Robin Reed (Harvard University) and Rick Morimoto (Northwestern University) funded through travel grants from the National Research Foundation (NRF). During these visits, they both attended the Cell Stress Society International (CSSI) conference in Virginia, United States of America (USA), where Ms Chakraborty’s abstract was selected for an oral presentation.
MSc student, Ms Kelly Schwarz, was awarded a prestigious South African Women in Science (SAWiSA) Department of Science and Technology (DST) Albertina Sisulu Fellowship.
This year marked the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of the Biomedical Biotechnology Research Unit (BioBRU). BioBRU has made a major contribution to student training and research in the area of molecular biology of cell stress in the department and country. The event was marked with a public lecture by BioBRU alumnus and current Head of Department (HoD) of Biochemistry at University of Venda, Professor Addmore Shonhai.
Associate Professor Adrienne Edkins was awarded
a new research focus in HIV-related cancers.
Associate Professor Edkins was also the winner of the DST South African Women in Science (SAWiSA) Award for Distinguished Young Scientist in the Natural/Engineering Sciences.
Professor Pletschke and Associate Professor Edkins were nominated as Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS).
Finally, congratulations to Professor Brett Pletschke for being awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished
Left to right: Dr Peter Clayton (DVC Research and Innovation, Rhodes University), Professor Greg Blatch (Pro-Vice Chancellor Notre- Dame University, Australia), Professor Addmore Shonhai (Head of Biochemistry, University of Limpopo) and Associate Professor Adrienne Edkins (Department of Biochemistry, SARChI Chair and BioBRU Director, Rhodes University) at the celebration to mark the ten year anniversary of the establishment Biomedical Biotechnology Research Unit (BioBRU) within the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology. Professor Shonhai is a Rhodes alumnus and gave an plenary talk on his research as part of the event.
Credit: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology
Ms Kelly Schwarz (MSc student, Biochemistry) at the 2018 DST/NRF South African Women in Science (SAWISA) award.
Ms Schwarz was awarded a prestigious SAWISA DST-Albertina Sisulu Master’s Fellowship in the Natural (Physical and Life) and Engineering Sciences category.
Credit: South African Women in Science (SAWISA)
Books/Chapters/Monographs
Dames, J.F.
Kleinert, A., Benedito, V.A., Morcillo, R.J.L., Dames, J.F., Cornejo-Revas, P., Zungia- Feest, A., Delgado, M. and Muñoz, G. (2018) Morphological and Symbiotic Root Modifications for Mineral Acquisition from Nutrient-Poor Soils. In: Giri B., Prasad R., Varma A. (eds) Root Biology. Soil Biology, Volume 52. Springer, Cham. p.85-142. ISBN:
9783319759098
Edkins, A.L. and Boel, N.
Edkins, A.L. and Boel, N. (2018) Regulation of the Extracellular Matrix by Heat Shock Proteins and Molecular Chaperones. In: Srivastava, P. and Binder, R.J. (eds.). Heat Shock Proteins in the Immune System. Online: Springer, Cham. p.97-121. ISBN: 9783319690407.