27 September 2022 Volume :10 Issue :44

Doctoral Graduate Set on Contributing to Cancer Research

Dr Thandokuhle Ntombela graduated with a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

UKZN Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Thandokuhle Ntombela graduated with a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry - a field he chose to help him become a researcher, especially in the field of drug development.

Ntombela hopes to contribute to research into cancer - a disease which robbed him of his mother.

‘It is a privilege to have come this far and I aim to make significant contributions in industry or in academia,’ he said.

Supervised by Professor Gert Kruger and Dr Glenn Maguire, his study focused on addressing the challenge of drug resistance in TB as the current treatment courses are lengthy, expensive, and toxic.

‘The alternative way the study pursued was to design peptide-based drugs targeting the key cell wall enzyme in drug-resistant TB strains using computational techniques,’ said Ntombela.

‘Studying at UKZN was great.  The support I received from the College postgraduate officers; Ms Phindile Nene and Ms Thulisile Khumalo, was magnificent.

Ntombela is from Empangeni where he completed his matric at Uyengo High School.

Words: Nombuso Dlamini

Photograph: Sandile Ndlovu

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