School of Biomedical Sciences
Welcome Message from the Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences: Prof Chris Viljoen
Welcome to the School of Biomedical Sciences. It is my pleasure to introduce you to a vibrant academic environment dedicated to excellence in biomedical science education, research, and innovation.
The School of Biomedical Sciences plays a central role in health sciences education at an undergraduate and postgraduate level. We aim to train future healthcare professionals and researchers who will advance health and well-being in South Africa and beyond.
The School of Biomedical Sciences consists of different specialized departments:
Animal Research Centre: Provides the necessary support for animal research, ensuring animal well-being and welfare. Research involving animals is used only when necessary for pre-clinical testing and is performed according to international norms and standards, kept to an absolute minimum, and used only when no other research alternatives are available. All research involving animals is ethically conducted in accordance with an approved research protocol and national and international standards.
Clinical Simulation and Skills Unit: The Department comprises an innovative state-of-the-art facility for training undergraduate healthcare professionals in a safe environment that allows students to develop clinical skills and clinical reasoning. Simulation-based education enables medical students to develop clinical competence in a safe, structured, and non-threatening learning environment. It allows for deliberate practice, mastery of learning, and standardised assessment. This approach is particularly critical in high-risk, technically demanding clinical disciplines, where patient safety, ethical training practices, and mastery of skills are vital. We follow a spiral approach, where students move between skills and simulation training and the clinical training platform to develop and consolidate their clinical skills. The use of simulation in training ensures that students first demonstrate competence in performing procedures within a controlled learning environment before interacting with patients.
Department of Basic Medical Sciences: The Department is responsible for training undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare professionals in Anatomy and Physiology. The Department has advanced dissection facilities and an anatomy museum featuring a unique collection of anatomical specimens for training. The Department offers BMedSc Honours, MMedSc and PhD in Anatomy and Physiology. The Department also supports specialized postgraduate research in Anatomy and Physiology. Key research areas in Anatomy include both gross anatomy and anthropology. The research includes investigating regional variation in standards for sex estimation in South African populations, with the aim of improving the accuracy of forensic anthropological identification methods. Additional work focuses on profiling disease and pathological conditions within the Free State Collection for Anthropological Research (FS-CAR), contributing valuable insights into patterns of skeletal pathology and population health in the region. The Department also supports specialised postgraduate research in Physiology, with key research areas encompassed within the NeuroCancerDiabetes Interdisciplinary (NCDI) Research Group. This group focuses on the interconnected mechanisms underlying neurological disorders, cancer, and metabolic diseases such as diabetes, aiming to unravel shared pathological pathways. This research focuses on mechanistic investigations alongside the evaluation of phytomedical therapeutic strategies in combination with standard pharmacological treatments.
Department of Biostatistics: The Department offers a biostatistical consultation service in support of undergraduate and postgraduate research. The Department also offers undergraduate modules in research methodology in collaboration with departments in clinical medicine and allied health. The Department offers MMedSc and PhD programmes in Biostatistics in specialised research training in advanced data modelling and health analytics. These programmes cover a range of areas including regression modelling, survival and time-to-event analysis, longitudinal and repeated-measures modelling, multilevel and hierarchical models, joint modelling of longitudinal and survival data, and methods for handling missing data (including multiple imputations and sensitivity analyses). Additional research areas include causal inference, predictive modelling, and statistical methodology for analysing complex clinical trial designs, including two-stage randomization designs. The Department is also developing innovative applications of generative artificial intelligence to analyse health data and enhance the teaching and learning of biostatistics.
Human Molecular Biology Unit: The Department offers specialized postgraduate training in Human Molecular Biology through the BMedSc Honours, MMedSc and PhD programmes. Areas of research specialization include molecular medicine and food authenticity and safety. The Department includes the GMO Testing Facility, a diagnostic platform that generates third-stream income by offering services for the certification of genetically modified status for seed, food, and feed, allowing the food industry to comply with national and international regulatory requirements. The diagnostic platform is ISO 17025 SANAS-accredited and certified by the National Department of Agriculture under the GMO Act of 1997 for genetically modified status certification. The GMO Testing Facility is also recognized as a leader in GM detection in Africa and is a member of the Southern African Network of GM Detection Laboratories.
National Control Laboratory for Biological Products: The Department provides a fit-for-purpose dedicated service to the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) for vaccine lot release in South Africa. The NCL is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and is a full member of the WHO-National Control Laboratory Network for Biologicals, and one of 15 laboratories worldwide contracted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to test WHO-prequalified vaccines. The NCL is also ISO 17025 SANAS accredited and SAHPRA GMP-licensed and certified. The NCL is playing a leading role in capacity-building to develop expertise in vaccine assessment and lot release across the African continent.
Next Generation Sequencing Unit: The Department houses a state-of-the-art facility for The UFS-NGS Unit is a state-of-the-art Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) facility, dedicated to advancing genomic research and supporting projects involving modern NGS technologies. The Unit provides genomic services to researchers upon request, supporting projects in genomic surveillance, molecular epidemiology and clinical research. The UFS-NGS Unit is a designated World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases (VPD) Surveillance and Pathogen Genomics, recognising its high-quality contributions to global public health genomics surveillance, and capacity building across the African region. The Unit also serves as a sequencing laboratory for the African Enteric Viruses Genome Initiative (AEVGI) and the Sequencing of the Antigenic Cartography of Enteric Viruses (SACEV), collaborates with continental organisations such as the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). The UFS-NGS Unit offers specialised postgraduate training in Medical Virology and Human Molecular Biology through the BSc Honours, MSc and PhD programmes. In addition, the NGS Unit provides practical opportunities and hands-on experience for postgraduate students and visiting scientific interns.
The School of Biomedical Sciences comprises a community dedicated to a vision of being research-led, student-centred, and regionally engaged, making a meaningful contribution to society. In achieving our vision, we continually strive for excellence in teaching and learning, research and service to the community. We consider each Department within the school to form part of our extended family and promote the values of excellence in everthying we do, to have a meaningful impact in societal development, to be accountable in everything we do, to maintain a caring and enabling environment with a sense of belonging, to keep social justice in the forefront of what we do, and to ensure that what we build together is sustainable, practicing responsible stewardship for the future.
We look forward to welcoming you into this dynamic environment and supporting your academic journey.