Contact Us

Head of Department

Position: Head of Department/Associate Professor
Tel: +27 (021)  959 2199
Fax: +27 (021) 959 2557
Email: rdenhaan@uwc.ac.za

Bio:

During my PhD I developed a transformation system for the expression of heterologous proteins in the yeast Pichia stipitis. My PhD thesis, entitled “Engineering of Pichia stipitis for enhanced xylan utilization” yielded two peer reviewed articles and a provisional patent. In the following years as a post-doc and later senior researcher at Stellenbosch University, Department of Microbiology, I played a key role in projects concerning heterologous cellulase production in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae in collaboration with research partners from Dartmouth College and Mascoma Corporation in the United States and VTT Technical Research Centre in Finland. This cooperation lasted over six years and enabled me to travel to the United States and Finland on numerous occasions to collaborate with world leaders in the fields of cellulosic bioethanol and yeast molecular biology such as Prof. Lee Lynd (Dartmouth College, USA) and Prof. Merja Penttlila (VTT, Finland). The research, aimed at creating a yeast strain capable of fermenting sugar polymers available in plant biomass for the production of bioethanol through the expression of the required enzymes, has generated more than ten further peer reviewed articles and four further patents. In August 2014 I was appointed as a senior lecturer at the University of the Western Cape where I also manage a research group as principal investigator. I was promoted to Associate Professor in 2019.  Collaboration with Prof. Van Zyl at Stellenbosch University will continue and an international collaboration with Prof Tomohisa Hasunuma of Kobe University has been established through an NRF/JSPS bilateral agreement.
I am the principal investigator of a yeast molecular biology research group focusing on:
  • Creating yeast strains for consolidated bioprocessing of biomass to second-generation biofuels.
  • Enhanced secretion of cellulases and other heterologous proteins in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae through rational strain design interventions.
  • Understanding the molecular mechanisms of yeast cell stress caused by heterologous protein secretion and improving stress tolerance of industrial yeast strains.
  • Investigating similarities of heterologous protein induced stress responses to the general stress response and modulation of this stress through rational design and abiotic interventions.
In 2014, I received an NRF/NNSF grant for my Chinese collaboration and in 2019 I received a NRF/JSPS grant for my Japanese collaboration.  Furthermore, I received funding through the NRF Incentive Funding programme as well as the University of the Western Cape senate research committee.  I was awarded a grant from the NRF Competitive Programme for Rated Researchers (starting 2018).
https://scholar.google.co.za/citations?user=fsQ71ykAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Academic and Administrative Staff

Position: Deputy Head of Department/ Proteomics Unit manager/ Associate Professor
Tel: +27 (021) 959 3327
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: aklein@uwc.ac.za

Bio:

Professor Ashwil Klein holds a PhD in Biotechnology from the University of the Western Cape. He completed his doctoral thesis entitled “Modulation of soybean and maize antioxidant activities by caffeic acid and nitric oxide under salt stress” in 2012. After completing an additional 1-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of the Western Cape, he was appointed Lecturer in the department of Biotechnology on a fixed term contract. He is currently a Senior Lecturer and manager of the Proteomics Unit in the same department. He leads is own research group (Plant Omics Laboratory) and supervise graduate students ranging from Honours to doctoral level. His research focus is towards understanding how best to control crop diseases by investigating plant-pathogen interactions under normal and abiotic stress conditions to improve food safety and security. The pathogens of interest are Fusarium verticillioides, and Fusarium proliferatum, Fusarium culmorum for cereals and Fusarium oxysporum for legumes. His lab is evaluating the physiological and molecular responses of cereals (maize wheat, sorghum) and legumes (soybean, cowpea) to Fusarium infection under normal and abiotic stress conditions. Other projects running in his lab includes investigating the effect of exogenous phenolic acids (caffeic acid and gallic acid) in controlling pathogen infection in cereal and legume plants under abiotic stress conditions.

Position: Professor
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2214
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: mkeyster@uwc.ac.za

Biography

Marshall Keyster completed his undergraduate studies, as well as Honours and Masters at the University of the Western Cape where in both degrees he focused on using molecular biology tools to study microorganisms from soil at the Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics. He then left UWC to pursue a PhD in plant molecular research at the Institute for Plant Biotechnology, which he successfully completed in 2010. He returned to UWC in 2011 to pursue a Post-Doctorial position [on a Department of Science and Technology (DST) innovation scholarship] and officially became a member of the academic staff (UWC Biotechnology department) as Lecturer in June 2012. All of the experimental chapters in his PhD thesis are published to date which was on “Nitric oxide mediated signalling in legumes and its role in maize responses to salt stress” and which specifically focused on salinity stress and mechanisms which plants can use to overcome this stress. Currently, he has his own research group known as the Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory (EBL) (established, January 2013) which hosts registered students at honours level, Masters level and PhD level.

Position: Associate Professor
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2211
Fax: +27 (021) 959 1549
Email: dpugh@uwc.ac.za

Bio:

I was raised in Cape Town and received my undergraduate education in Applied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Cape Town. I obtained a D.Phil in Theoretical Physics from Oxford University in 1991 before making the transition into the biological sciences. I trained as a protein NMR spectroscopist under Iain Campbell in Oxford 1994-6, before returning to South Africa in 1997 to set up the country’s first protein NMR group, based at the University of the Western Cape. I am married to Hermione, and advocate at the Cape Bar, and we have two small boys, Thomas and Jacob.

Position: Professor
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2080
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: mbenjeddou@uwc.ac.za

Bio:

Prof. Mongi Benjeddou obtained his doctoral degree in Molecular Virology from the University of the Western Cape where he also held a postdoctoral position for less than a year. Professor Benjeddou joined the University of the Western Cape in 2003, and he is presently an Associate Professor in the Department of Biotechnology.
  • Associate Editor: Drug Metabolism and Personalized Therapy (DMPT). Official journal of the European Society of Pharmacogenomics and Personalised Therapy.
  • Editorial Board Member: Journal of Pharmacokinetics & Experimental Therapeutics.
  • Member of the European Society of Pharmacogenomics and Personalised Therapy.
  • Founding Member of the African Society for pharmacogenomics and leading member in the interim committee.
  • Member of the Arab Expatriate Scientists Network (AESN).
  • Member of the French Society of Engineers and Scientists in South Africa.

MAIN RESEARCH PROGRAMME:

Precision Medicine: Pharmacogenomics and Development of Individualized Drug Therapy for Sub-Saharan African Populations.

The field of precision medicine, which aims to deliver the right drug to the right patient with right dose at the right time, has the potential to transform clinical practice in the near future. The personalized therapeutics industry is now poised for a rapid growth because of recent advances in the field including new diagnostic technologies and novel biomarkers relevant to the practice of medicine. This has led to improved diagnosis, treatment and monitoring across a number of disease areas.

Advances in pharmacogenomics over the past decade have yielded new tools to evaluate disease susceptibility and prognosis, and an unprecedented opportunity to individualize drug therapy. New medicines are increasingly targeted to specific patient populations and add much-needed firepower to the therapeutic armamentarium, particularly for cancer, chronic diseases (such as diabetes), and rare diseases. Pharmacogenomics is playing an increasingly important role in the drug development process and the rational pharmacotherapeutic management of patients. Pharmacogenomics profiling has the potential to increase the efficacy of commonly used therapeutics, while greatly reducing adverse drug reactions.

This research programme is set to make a significant contribution in the development and implementation of precision medicine for indigenous and admixed populations from South Africa in particular, and the Sub-Saharan African region in general. It aims to develop and validate individualized drug therapies for patients with diabetes, hypertension and other non-communicable diseases such as cancer.

Research Project 1:

Precision medicine: Pharmacogenomics and Development of Individualised Drug Therapy for Diabetes and Hypertension Patients.
Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and hypertension represent two common conditions worldwide. They frequently occur in the same individuals in clinical practice. The presence of hypertension does increase the risk of new onset of diabetes, as well as diabetes does promote development of hypertension [1]. Comorbid hypertension and diabetes mellitus are associated with high rates of macrovascular and microvascular complications. T2DM is commonly accompanied by other cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, such as hypertension, obesity, and dyslipidemia. CVDs are the most common cause of death in people with T2DM [2]. Due to the frequent association with cardiovascular diseases, the management of hypertensive patients with T2DM is an important clinical priority [3]
Metformin is often the first drug used to treat newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic patients, and it is widely prescribed worldwide. Metformin is effective as monotherapy and in combination with nearly every other therapy for type 2 diabetes, and its utility is supported by data from a large number of clinical trials. However, despite its exceptional efficacy and safety profile, about 40% of type 2 diabetes patients who have taken metformin failed to reach target fasting glucose level. Recent studies suggest that interpatient variability in response to metformin therapy could be related to polymorphisms in the organic cation transporter (OCT) genes and/or the multidrug and toxin extrusion (MATE) genes.
In the case of hypertension, several genetic biomarkers for antihypertensive drug response have been also identified, which might be used in treatment selection and optimization for hypertension. Research in the field has also enhanced our understanding of hypertension and the mechanisms by which the various drugs produce efficacy. There are several examples of genes in the literature and databases with relatively strong data on associations of genetic polymorphisms with antihypertensive response; the data on ADRB1, CACNB2, and NEDD4L are detailed as examples.

Research Project 2:

Precision Medicine: Radiogenomics and Development of Individualized Radiation Therapy for Cancer Patients.

Radiotherapy (RT) is a commonly used treatment modality for various solid tumors. It is used in the treatment of up to 50% of cancer patients. In addition, around 40% of long-term cancer survivors undergo RT at some point in their treatment. However, radiation exposure often results in toxicity that compromises organ function and affects the quality of life for many cancer survivors. Although RT is primarily a local treatment, patients are exposed to a risk of toxicities in the treatment field and surrounding tissues, which may develop acutely and late.

There is a large patient-to-patient variability for the development of adverse reactions following RT, in terms of both prevalence and severity. The known causes of variation in incidence or severity of toxicity include radiotherapy dose, dose distribution, co-morbidities such as diabetes, concurrent chemotherapy, as well as genetic factors in the form of SNPs or other genetic alterations such as copy number variants.

The individualization of radiation therapy can help improving the treatment outcome by maximizing efficacy whilst lowering toxicity. This could be achieved by using advanced radiotherapy techniques, such as intensity-modulated radiotherapy, together with genetic testing to provide useful support for clinical decision-making for cancer patients.

Position: Professor
Tel: +27 (021) 959 3372
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: medamato@uwc.ac.za

Bio:

I conducted my undergraduate studies at the National University of La Plata, Argentina, where I got my degree in Biology. I completed my PhD studies at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), at the forensic lab directed by Prof. D. Corach. My postgraduate studies were focused on the evolutionary analysis of repeated DNA sequences in South American endemic crustaceans. As a postdoc I gained experience in molecular population genetics in a wide diversity of aquatic organisms at the University of Hull (UH) (UK), University of the Western Cape (BCB now, then Zoology Department) and University of Stellenbosch, and in the analysis of archived, highly degraded DNA (UH). In 2006 I joined the Forensic DNA Lab at the UWC. My training in population genetics facilitated the design of the above mentioned Y-chromosome “kit” and the analysis and successful identification of various individuals from highly degraded DNA.  Currently I participate in numerous genotyping international forensic collaborations. I belong to the Working Committee for Innocence Project South Africa (IPSA) (http://innocenceprojectsa.com/working-committee/).

Position: Professor
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2032
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: memeyer@uwc.ac.za

Bio:

Prof Meyer holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of the Western Cape. After completing his PhD, he was awarded the National Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship for Studies Abroad. He completed 2 years postdoctoral training at the National Centre for Biomedical Engineering Sciences at the National University of Ireland, Galway. He returned to South Africa in 2006 to start a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biotechnology at the UWC, for which he was awarded the South African Medical Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship and the National Research Foundation Innovation Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2007 he was awarded the South African Medical Research Council Career Award and was employed in the Department of Biotechnology at the UWC as a Senior Lecturer. In the past 10 years Prof Meyer has trained more than 10 PhD and 20 MSc students. He is currently the director of the Biolabels Unit of the Department of Science and Technology/Mintek Nanotechnology Innovation Centre (DST/Mintek NIC).

Research: Prof Meyer’s research interest involves the development of nanostructured materials for applications in therapeutics and diagnosis, focussing on diseases that significantly contribute to South Africa’s disease burden. Applications in therapeutics entail the development of nanotherapeutics for the targeted removal of diseased cells through the induction of apoptosis.  Applications in diagnostics entail the identification of suitable disease biomarkers and the development of nanoparticles functionalized with biomolecules (peptides or aptamers) that can facilitate specific biomolecular recognition of such biomarkers and the subsequent development of rapid diagnostic systems.

Position: Chief scientific Officer
Tel: +27 (021) 959 3503
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: cwjacobs@uwc.ac.za

Position: Senior Lecturer
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2803
Email: uhesse@uwc.ac.za

Bio 
I am a specialist in genomics with extensive hands-on expertise in crop production, microbiology, biotechnology and bioinformatics acquired in nearly 25 years of agriculture-related research. Throughout my career, most of my research focused on the analysis of plants and plant-microbe interactions, and the study of their genomes. Currently, I am leading the Medicinal Plants Genomics Program, which I have established at the University of the Western Cape.
I completed my PhD in my home town at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Halle, Germany), supervised by Prof Werner Schöberlein (former Department of Seed Production). I defended my thesis, which focused on beneficial effects of fungal endophytes on water stress response in tall fescue, in 2002 with “summa cum laude”. Thereafter, I joined the lab of Prof Cristopher Schardl at the Plant Pathology Department of the University of Kentucky (Lexington, USA). I continued my investigations of the grass-endophyte symbiotum, now focusing on the genomic background of these organisms. In 2005, I helped to secure US $1.2 Mio to sequence the genome and transcriptomes of the fungal symbiont Epichloë festucae, which became the first genome project ever conducted at the University of Kentucky. In 2008, I became Research Associate at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada), joining the teams of Prof Collette Breuil and Prof Jörg Bohlman from the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences. There, I collaborated with the renown Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre to investigate the genomic background of the fungal pine tree pathogen Grosmannia clavigera. I terminated my position in 2010 to follow my husband to Cape Town, South Africa. Here, I continued to expand my expertise in bioinformatics at the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (Prof Alan Christoffels, SANBI-UWC) and at the Institute for Microbial Biotechnology and Metagenomics (Prof Marla Trindade, IMBM-UWC), while analyzing genomes of a fungal plant pathogen, the coelacanth and viruses encountered in soil samples from the Namib Desert.
My appointment as Senior Researcher at UWC in 2015 permitted me to initiate my own research program - Medicinal Plants Genomics. This research direction, previously not established in South Africa, has outstanding economic potential for the local agricultural, pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries. The program comprises four main directions: 1) establishment of plant transcriptome and genome research (spanning plant sampling, biochemical characterization, sequencing and biocomputational data analysis), 2) development of novel biocomputational tools for data mining, 3) development of a yeast expression system for in-vitro production of valuable botanical compounds, and 4) identification and characterization of endophytic microorganisms in the investigated medicinal plants. So far, I have secured over R 3Mio of research funds to analyze the genomic background of the pilot plant species, rooibos (Aspalathus linearis). This endemic South African medicinal plant is known world-wide as a herbal tea, and has diverse medicinal properties (e.g. anti-diabetic, cardioprotective, antiaging effects). First results on biochemical fingerprinting of rooibos plants, genome size estimation and transcriptome analysis have been published. To date, I have graduated 1 PhD, 2 MSc and 6 Honours students, and am currently supervising 2 PhD, 2 MSc and 1 Hons student. In 2018, I joined the Department of Biotechnology as Senior Lecturer. I am continuing with my research and now teach “Calculations in Molecular Biology”, which is currently attended by ± 130 students from different departments of the University.

Current Projects:
Genomics of Aspalathus linearis: Assembly and annotation of the organellar and nuclear genomes of rooibos
Analysis of phylogenetic relationships between the different growth types of the Aspalathus linearis species complex
Identification and characterization of rooibos genes involved in medicinal compound production
Identification and characterization of rooibos genes involved in drought stress tolerance
Identification and characterization of rooibos endophytes
Development of novel machine learning algorithms for plant genome mining towards identification of genes involved in medicinal compound production

Position: Senior Lecturer
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2557
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: tmulaudzi@uwc.ac.za

Bio:

Dr Takalani Mulaudzi-Masuku completed her PhD in 2011, and was employed at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in the Proteomics Unit in collaboration with UWC as a postdoctoral researcher from 2012 till 2015. She joined UWC as a lecturer in July 2015, where she is currently lecturing Food Biotechnology and Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics Practical at second and Hons level respectively.

Position: Senior Scientific Officer (Proteomics)
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2066
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: lhusselmann@gmail.com

Bio:

Dr Lizex Husselmann (PhD) is a joint Postdoctoral research fellow in The National Agricultural Proteomics and Services Unit (NAPRSU) and Plant Biotechnology Research Group (PBRG) at the University of the Western Cape under the mentorship of Prof Ndiko Ludidi. In 2015, he completed his PhD degree that investigated the interaction between Venturia inaequalis (fungus) and apple (Malus domestica) at a molecular level using proteomics and transcriptomics as tools.
His current research includes profiling the leaf and root proteomes of food crops such as maize, sorghum and chia. More specifically, his work entails studying the effects different treatments (biotic and abiotic stresses) on these crops at protein level in order to identify and characterise biological markers. His role in the Unit is to teach postgraduate students and prospective clients the gel-based proteomics workflow and contributes to project design and execution. He is also a liaison officer that engage with clients. He is actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in the department of Biotechnology. Alongside Dr Ashwil Klein, Dr Husselmann is teaching a second year course in Biochemistry (BTN216) and an Honours course in Proteomics to Biotechnology students.

Position: nGAP Lecturer
Emailmkasu@uwc.ac.za
Tel: 021-959-2065

Bio:

Dr Mohaimin Kasu is employed as a lecturer in the department of Biotechnology at UWC since 2018. He achieved a Bsc in molecular sciences (2009), Bsc medical honours (2011) and MPhil in Biomedical Forensic Science (2013) from the University of Cape Town. He joined the Forensic DNA Laboratory at UWC in 2015 for his PhD research which was focused on the development of a Y-chromosome DNA profiling kit for resolving the male DNA components of sexual assault evidence. Since 2018 he was appointed to a lecture post in the New Generation Academic program (nGAP) and teach 2nd year students (BTN222) an introduction to genetics and research ethics. He also currently lectures in the honours module (BTY714) with emphasis on forensic genetics and human ethics.
 

Position: Senior Lecturer
Emailysewsynker@uwc.ac.za
Tel: +27 (021) 959 3549
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505

Bio:

Yeshona Sukai holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) degree in Microbiology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) with a strong background in Microbiology and Biotechnology. Sukai completed just under 3 years of postdoctoral research at UKZN (2018 to 2021) and thereafter served as a Senior Researcher within Fort Hare Institute of Technology (FHIT) at the University of Fort Hare (UFH) from July 2021 until February 2024. Currently, Sukai is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biotechnology at University of the Western Cape. She is a National Research Foundation (NRF)-rated researcher and has been selected to participate in the Future Professor’s Programme (FPP) (2024- 2025), that is the Department of Higher Education and Training's (DHET) prestigious flagship 24-month programme. Sukai’s field of interest focuses on industrial waste valorization for the production of commercial value-added bioproducts and biofuels. Her research expertise includes: lignocellulosic pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, microbial fermentation, process modelling and optimization, and scale up. Sukai is currently developing a niche area to enhance the various steps during microbial bioprocesses by incorporating different industrial wastes as alternatives to resources, that is in accordance with the global sustainable development goals. Additionally, her research will also delve into microbial genetic engineering in order to enhance the microbial metabolic pathways to maximize bioproduct yields and reduce the bioprocess cost. Over the past three years, Sukai has raised in excess of R1 million in research grant funding as the principle investigator and/or as a team member. To date, Sukai has co-authored 29 peer-reviewed, DHET accredited publications (23 scientific articles and 6 book chapters) and has been mentoring postgraduate students at various levels (7 BSc. Honours, 2 MSc. and 1 Ph.D) in this research area.

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ObYA06YAAAAJ&hl=en
 

Position: Senior Scientific Officer
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2968
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: eanthony@uwc.ac.za

Position: Senior Scientific Officer
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2082
Fax: +27 (021) 959 1548
Email: cgelderbloem@uwc.ac.za

Position: Chief Scientific Officer
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2888
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: alilelo@uwc.ac.za

Position: Senior Scientific Officer
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2888
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: snene@uwc.ac.za

Bio:

Sindisiwe Nene hails from the province of KwaZulu-Natal, where she completed a BSc and Honors in Microbiology from the University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal. She is currently studying part-time towards a Master’s degree in the department of Biotechnology under the supervision of Prof. Bengeddou.

Position: Administrative Assistant
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2558
Fax: +27 (021) 959 1548
Email: mpool@uwc.ac.za

Position: Administrative Officer
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2215
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: fstarkey@uwc.ac.za

Bio:

Mrs Starkey was born and raised in Lamberts Bay, where she completed her primary education.  She then completed her high school education in Paarl.  Mrs Starkey then completed a typewriting and secretarial course at the TTODDS Typewriting College.  In January 2000 she was appointed in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of the Western Cape as an Administrative Officer for a period of 7 years and then joined the Department of Biotechnology in 2007.

Position: Research Technician
Tel: +27 (021) 959 2066
Fax: +27 (021) 959 3505
Email: mohamedg@arc.agric.za / gadijamo@gmail.com

Bio:

Gadija Mohamed is employed as a Research Technician by the Agricultural Research Council to oversee the day-to- day operation and administration of the Proteomics instruments. She currently operate all mass spectrometry/proteomic equipment and software within the unit. These instruments include the Bruker’s UltrafleXtreme MALDI mass spectrometer, ImagePrep, Easy II nano HPLC, Proteineer fc II and Biorad‘s protein IEF cell system. Mrs Mohamed also trains and assist postgraduate students and/or clients with sample preparation prior to MS analysis for protein identification. She is actively involved in project design and execution with prospective and existing clients and serve as liaison officer between clients and the Unit.
Some of the applications available at the unit includes MALDI Biotyping (identification of microorganisms), MALDI Imaging (label-free measurements of lipids, metabolites and proteins from tissue), Peptide mass fingerprinting (PMF), nano-LC MS, 1D SDS-PAGE and 2D SDS PAGE analysis.
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