School Hosts Inaugural Research Day

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The School of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Sciences (LMMS) has held its inaugural Research Symposium billing it as an occasion for staff and students to identify the opportunities, skills and research being conducted at an optimal level at UKZN.

Plenary speaker the Associate Scientific Director of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim, provided motivational insight for the students. ‘Research is about advancing what we know. With technology evolving so swiftly, globalisation has brought about a major realisation,’ said Abdool Karim.

‘A threat in a certain corner of the globe is relevant to people in this part of the world. We are surrounded by many public health challenges with so many diseases prevalent on our back door. Research is about combining and synergising our ideas to stay ahead of the knowledge curve while collaborating and bringing about a difference. Self-belief is also very important in your pursuit and generation of knowledge.’

The Research Day featured postgraduate students presenting talks on a wide selection of topics categorised into three distinct themes. Winners were graded on their presentations and the best presentations were recognised at the prize-giving ceremony held at the end of the day.

Masters student, Ms Rivona Harricharan, won a prize under the section on Human Body Form and Function. Her topic,Tat-Induced Neurotoxicity Mediates Hippocampus-Associated Behavioural Impairments and Histological Alterations, provided insight into the behaviour of the HIV/TAT, a protein which caused HIV-mediated dementia in patients. 

Her study mimicked the effects of the protein on the brains of rats and found a significant loss of brain layers.

In the section Genetic, Molecular and Cellular Disease, the winner was Ms Shivona Gounden, a PhD student whose topic was titled: Sirtuin 3 Initiates a Cell-Survival Response under Hyperglycaemic Conditions in Human Heptoma Cells. Type 2 Diabetes is predicted to affect around 300 million people worldwide. If stress is reduced and mitocondriac integrity is lowered, diabetes can be controlled. Sirtuins form a family of central regulators of metabolic function and cell survival. Gounden emphasised the regulators of DNA repair and Sirt 3 key regulators that activate target proteins.

In the Infectious Diseases section, PhD student Ms Catherine Koofhethile won with her topic: Reduction in Breadth and not Polyfunctionality or Proliferative Capacity of CD8+ T Cells is Associated with Loss of Virologic HIV Control.

Koofhethile found there was no significant difference in the polyfunctionality of the CD8+ T Cells. There was also no significant difference in the overall breadth of HIV CD8+ T cells responses between P and VCs at baseline.

For the poster session, students were encouraged to create posters which were also rated. First prize went to Mr Ernest Ebell’a Dalle for the poster titled: The Identification of a Possible Biomarker for Cognitive impairment.

Second was Dolly Seipone for HIV-1 Viral Load Dynamics and Compartmentalization in the Cerebrospinal Fluid and Blood in Patients Presenting with Tuberculosis Meningitis (TBM) versus Other Meningitis.

Third was Ms Kimane Josephs’ poster The Effect of Tulbaghia Violacea HARV on Blood Glucose Levels and Antioxidant Status in Streptozotocin-induced Diabetic Rats.

Professor William Daniels, Dean of LMMS, said with the Research Day being so well received, there was hope that  next year more students could present and create a fantastic opportunity to get to learn and know about the research taking place within the University.

-         Zakia Jeewa