UKZN Medical School Hosts SAMRC ‘Gen S’ Job Shadow Programme for Top Learners

This is the fifth consecutive year of the South African Medical Research Council’s (SAMRC) Generation Science (Gen S) Job Shadow Programme, the Durban edition of which featured 25 Grade 11 learners, primarily from Durban Girls’ High, Chesterville Secondary, Hunt Road Secondary and Ndukwenhle High School.

As part of the programme, the 25 top learners from the respective schools recently visited the Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) laboratories and various world-class laboratories at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine.

Situated on the Medical School campus, AHRI is an independent, transdisciplinary scientific research institute based across two campuses in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). AHRI’s research combines population, basic and translational and social and clinical sciences to understand and intervene in the health and well-being of South African communities.

The learners were excited to visit the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) which is globally renowned for discovering the SARS-CoV-2 Beta (501Y.V2) and Omicron variants, as well as tracking HIV and Tuberculosis mutation mechanisms.

Equally intriguing, they said, was touring the Discipline of Medical Microbiology’s laboratories, including the recently launched Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory which is already enabling researchers to conduct cutting-edge work on infectious pathogens and strengthen disease surveillance in a high-containment environment.

A hub of academic excellence and clinical innovation committed to transforming health outcomes through education, research and service, the tour took learners to the campus library, an interactive experience with the paediatric to adult mannequins at the Medical Clinical Skills Laboratory, a dash past the library, down the stairs for a stop to marvel at the iconic Wall of Fame and via the museum which is being constructed to become the home of the Medical School’s rich history.

The tour was led by UKZN’s Public Relations Office and co-ordinated by Mrs Roopa Moodley, who is the Public Relations Manager for the South African Population Research Infrastructure Network (SAPRIN) which partners with the SAMRC, funded by the national Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI).

Words and photographs: Lunga Memela