Speakers

Plenary Speakers

Gordon Brown
University of Exeter
Gordon Brown completed a Ph.D at the University of Cape Town and following Wellcome Trust Fellowships at the University of Oxford and then at the University of Cape Town, he moved in 2009 to the University of Aberdeen as a Professor of Immunology. In 2019 he relocated to the University of Exeter, where he is Director of the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology and Director of the CMM Africa Unit, based at the University of Cape Town. His primary research interests are C-type lectin receptors and their role in homeostasis and immunity, with a particular focus on antifungal immunity. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, American Academy of Microbiology, Royal Society of South Africa, Academy of Medical Sciences and Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Bridget Carragher
Founding Technical Director, Chan Zuckerberg Imaging Institute

Bridget Carragher is Founding Technical Director of the Chan Zuckerberg Imaging Institute, leading efforts to develop cutting-edge imaging technologies to resolve cellular molecular architecture at near-atomic resolution using cryo-electron tomography. She co-directed major U.S. cryo-EM resources, including NCCAT, NCITU, NRAMM, and SMLC, and co-founded NanoImaging Services. Her work has advanced automated cryo-EM, training, and access, driving innovation at the interface of structural biology, technology development, and biomedical research.

Emmanuelle Charpentier
Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens

Emmanuelle Charpentier is a French microbiologist, geneticist and biochemist. She is the founder, scientific and managing director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens in Berlin. She co-founded CRISPR Therapeutics and ERS Genomics with Rodger Novak and Shaun Foy. She has received numerous prestigious international awards and honours and is an elected member of many national and international scientific academies. More information about Emmanuelle is available at: www.emmanuelle-charpentier.org/

Kelly Chibale
University of Cape Town

Kelly Chibale is Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Cape Town and a leading researcher in infectious disease drug discovery. His work focuses on developing novel therapeutics and innovative tools to improve treatment outcomes, particularly for people of African descent. As Founding Director of the H3D Centre and SAMRC Drug Discovery & Development Unit, he has advanced translational research bridging chemistry, biology, and medicine.

Christian Happi
Institute of Genomics and Global Health at Redeemer’s University

Christian Happi is a Distinguished Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics and Director of the Institute of Genomics and Global Health at Redeemer’s University, Nigeria. His research applies genomics to infectious diseases including malaria, Lassa fever, Ebola, monkeypox, yellow fever, HIV, COVID-19, and Marburg virus. As Founder of ACEGID, he advanced pathogen and human genomic sequencing across 42 African countries and trained over 3,000 scientists, shaping Africa’s genomics and global health research landscape.

Frank Slack
Harvard Medical School

Frank Slack is the Shields Warren Mallinckrodt Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the HMS Initiative for RNA Medicine. His research focuses on microRNAs in cancer, revealing how they regulate key oncogenes and pioneering their use as therapeutics. He discovered the first role of a microRNA in aging and has founded multiple biotech companies to translate RNA science into novel cancer therapies and clinical applications.

Julie Makani
Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS)
Professor Julie Makani (MD, PhD, FRCP, FTAAS) is a physician scientist in Tanzania at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) and SickleInAfrica Clinical Coordinating Centre. She is Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and Science Advisor at the Tanzania High Commission in the UK and ECSA-HC. She received the 2011 Royal Society Africa Award. She is Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Tutu Leadership, and Tanzania Academy of Sciences

Vishva M. Dixit
Genentech
Dr. Vishva M. Dixit is a pioneering scientist whose work has transformed our understanding of cell death and inflammatory signalling, particularly through discovering the role of caspases in death receptor-induced apoptosis. Born in Kenya, he began his academic career at the University of Michigan, becoming a Professor of Pathology before moving to Genentech in 1997. At Genentech, he serves as Vice President of Research, continuing to drive innovation in biomedical science. His achievements have earned him election to multiple prestigious academies, including the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society, as well as major international awards. He also contributes to global scientific leadership through advisory roles with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Gates Foundation.

Paul Kappo
Prof Abidemi Paul Kappo is a full Professor of Biochemistry and Group Leader of the Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology Group at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He is a structural biologist with over 25 years of academic research experience. He obtained his PhD from the University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa, by determining the structure of the RING finger domain of the splicing-associated protein, RBBP6, using heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy. His research focuses on applying structural biology and structural bioinformatics techniques to discover and design new/novel biopharmaceuticals against infectious diseases. Additionally, dissecting the nexus between schistosomiasis and other infectious diseases for biotherapeutics, as well as schistosomiasis and cancer for vaccinomics, using molecular biophysics techniques and biomathematics, has been at the forefront of his research lately. He is a rated researcher by the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, has published widely on infectious diseases, and has graduated several MSc and PhD students. His research has been primarily funded in the past generously by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and, lately, by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF). Prof Kappo is highly skilled in scientific organization and advocacy, having served as the President of the South African Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SASBMB) for two terms (2018-2022) and is presently the Vice-President of the Federation of African Societies of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (FASBMB) since 2022. He is a visiting scientist at the Department of Biochemistry, Lagos State University (LASU), and holds an adjunct Research Professorship with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Lagos, Nigeria.

Monique Williams
Designation: Senior lecturer
My research is focused on studying the physiology of mycobacteria, with a specific interest in biosynthetic pathways that are required by the bacteria during infection. Pathways of interest include molydopterin co-factor biosynthesis, ergothioneine biosynthesis and iron-sulphur cluster biogenesis.

Karl Storbeck
Karl Storbeck (PhD) is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, Stellenbosch University and a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences, UK. He obtained his PhD in Biochemistry (SU) in 2008 and was appointed to Faculty in 2012. His research is focused on investigating the biosynthesis and metabolism of steroid hormones with a particular focus of understanding the role of 11-oxygenated androgens in health and disease.

Theresa Coetzer
Professor Theresa Coetzer (University of KwaZulu-Natal) received her PhD in Biochemistry from the former University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. She was a J William Fulbright Fellow at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, USA in 1995 and is a former President of the South African Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SASBMB). Her research focusses on proteolytic enzymes as diagnostic and drug targets in African parasitic diseases: mainly animal and human trypanosomiasis (nagana and sleeping sickness) and also trichinellosis and theileriosis. Her research expertise encompasses protein/protease isolation and characterisation, and immunochemical techniques, including chicken egg yolk antibody (IgY) production against peptide epitopes and proteins.

Addmore Shonhai
Addmore Shonhai is Professor of Biochemistry based at the University of Venda in South Africa. His research involves understanding the role of heat shock proteins in the development infectious agents. Another area of interest involves using heat shock proteins as biotechnological tools to enhance recombinant protein production in E. coli. He is a current council member of the South African Society of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology (SASBMB). He is a recipient of a prestigious Georg Foster Fellowship, awarded to him by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany. He is life-time member of the Cell Stress International Society.

Francois van der Westhuizen
Francois started his academic career in 1993 as junior lecturer and is currently Professor of Biochemistry and the Deputy Dean (Research and Innovation) at the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at the North-West University (NWU). His teaching expertise has been enzymology, molecular biology and bioenergetics. After receiving his PhD in 1998, his research focus narrowed to mitochondrial disease. Since 2002 he helped establish the Mitochondria Research Group at the NWU, which focusses on mitochondrial- and other neuromuscular diseases in SA, as well as research on bioenergetics and mtDNA and their role in health and disease.

Jo-Anne de la Mare
Prof Jo-Anne de la Mare is a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Bioinformatics at Rhodes University and President of the South African Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. As the Principal Investigator of the Female Cancers Research at Rhodes University (FemCR2U) group, her research focuses on preclinical drug discovery for female cancers including triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) and cervical cancer. In addition, the development of drug resistance models for triple negative breast cancer and cervical cancer cell lines from South African women is geared towards developing more relevant disease models for the African context.

Ed Sturrock
Ed Sturrock is a full professor in the Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences and a founding member of the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine (IDM) at the University of Cape Town. He received his PhD in 1994 and went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School where he started his research on angiotensin-converting enzyme. In 2003 he was awarded a Wellcome Trust International Senior Research Fellowship. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa and the University of Cape Town, a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, has a National Research Foundation A2 rating, and is a recipient of the South African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Gold Award. He has published over 130 papers in peer-reviewed international journals and five granted patents.

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