Health Sciences’ Research Symposium Rewards Brilliant Young Minds

The College of Health Sciences’ (CHS) flagship Continuing Professional Development (CPD) two-day symposium featured presentations on 103 of the reviewed abstracts.

The CHS received a total of 109 abstracts which all went through a rigorous review process by an expert team of scientists led by the CHS scientific writer, Dr Kgothatso Machaba.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of the CHS, Professor Busi Ncama, and the College Dean of Research, Professor Bongani Nkambule, announced and congratulated winners in the various categories.

During the two full days of presentations, adjudicators – comprising senior professors in the CHS -judged the studies for their scientific impact, novelty, relevance to the community and also assessed presentation skills and expertise in the field.

On offer were prizes to attend either international or national conferences and these were awarded to the following presenters who scored highly in the categories of Postdoctoral Fellow, PhD candidate, Master’s candidate or Emerging Researcher (staff):

• Ms Karishma Naidoo of Human Physiology won first prize of R30 000 in the PhD Oral category, with Mr Minenhle Buthelezi of Occupational and Environmental Health and Ms Nicole Reddy of the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) each winning runners-up prizes of R10 000.
• The best PhD poster presentation was delivered by Optometry student Ms Lungile Buthelezi who won R20 000. Virology lecturer and pathologist at the National Health Laboratory Service, Dr Lilishia Gounder, won second prize of R10 000.
• Africa Health Research Institute’s (AHRI) Ms Sanyuktha Harisingh was first in the Master’s Oral Presentation category winning R30 000, with runners-up prizes of R10 000 going to Ms Relebohile Mautsoe of Pharmaceutical Sciences and AHRI’s Mr Syethemba Nkosi.
• Pharmaceutical Sciences student Ms Jasoda Govender won R20 000 for presenting the Best Poster in the Master’s category, while runners-up prizes of R10 000 each went to Ms Joyce Adidja of Medical Sciences and Ms Rinae Gadisi of Human Physiology who was also recently awarded UKZN’s Rick Turner Scholarship, which is awarded to excellent postgraduate students who exhibit a depth of community engagement.
• Dr Muhammed Ali Gafar Muhammed of Pharmaceutical Sciences won first prize of R30 000 for his postdoctoral oral presentation, and Dr Prem Sharma Medical Sciences R10 000 second prize.
• Adjudged to have delivered the best Staff Oral presentation was Audiology lecturer Ms Sphilile Mbhele who won R30 000, while Dr Sumayyah Ebrahim, who lectures in the MBChB programme, won the R10 000 second prize.

The keynote address: ‘From Gene Therapy to Vaccine Development: The Road to Clinical Translation of Basic Research’, was presented by Professor Abdullah El of the University of the Witwatersrand/South African Medical Research Council’s (SAMRC) Antiviral Gene Therapy Research Unit (AGTRU) who completed his doctoral degree at the AGTRU in 2009, where he focused on exploiting the RNA interface pathway to science hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication. Since then he has worked on the development of novel gene therapy-based approaches to combat HBV and mRNA technologies for gene therapy and vaccines.

Interactive Q & A sessions were held featuring each of the symposium presenters.

Both Ncama and Nkambule praised the increasingly high standard of the symposium and the overall quality of the presentations which underpinned CHS’ mission to be a socially responsive College, providing a holistic experience of excellence in health professions education, research, innovation, entrepreneurship, community and stakeholder engagement and health services.

Words and photographs: Lunga Memela