SITE / INSTITUTION DETAILS:

Site / Dept / Institution Name: Department of Genetics, University of the Free State

Postal Address: PO Box 339 (internal Box 116), Bloemfontein, 9300

Telephone No: 051 401 3974    Fax No: 0865187317

E-Mail: bothagm@ufs.ac.za

QUALIFICATIONS:

Academic Qualifications:

2011     Doctor of Philosophy (Molecular Genetics), University of the Free State. 

2002     Masters of Science (Genetics), University of the Free State. 

2000     Bachelor of Science, Honors (Genetics) with distinction, University of the Free State.

1999     Bachelor of Science (Botany and Genetics), University of the Free State

1996     Matriculated with distinction, Afrikaans High School Kroonstad

Relevant related work experience (brief) and current position:

Lecturing:

Junior lecturer, Department of Haematology and Cell Biology in Human Molecular Biology, University of the Free State (2009-2012)

Lecturer, Department of Haematology and Cell Biology in Human Molecular Biology, University of the Free State (2013-2014)

Lecturer, Department of Genetics, University of the Free State (2015)

Senior Lecturer, Department of Genetics, University of the Free State (2016 to present)

 Laboratory:

Assistant Laboratory manager at the GMO Testing laboratory, University of the Free State (2006-2010)

Acting Head of Laboratory at the GMO Testing laboratory, University of the Free State (2008-2010)

Post graduate students supervised

Sixteen BSc or MMedSc Hons students, Nine MSc students and two PhD students. 

Scholarship awards / Grants

 Prestige Scholar Programme of the University of the Free State (2011 – 2013)

 NRF Thuthuka Funding Award post PhD track (2014-2016)

 NHLS Development Grant (2014 -2015)

 Research Grant from the Faculty of Natural and agricultural sciences (2016)

NRF Thuthuka Funding Award post PhD track (2017-2019)

Professional Societies Membership

 South African Association of Plant Breeders (2002 to 2006)

 South African Genetics Society (2002 to 2008 and again from 2017-2019)

 Society for Metabolism, Endocrinology and Diabetes South Africa (2014-2019). Serving on the Steering committee of SEMDSA from 2016 to 2018.

 Human Genetics Society of South Africa (2015-2019)

• Additional Training

  •           Course in Laboratory internal auditing of the ISO Guide 17025 quality system and technical assessment. (2003)

  •           Course training for SAS statistical program version 4.1 (2007)

  •           Essential Real Time PCR short course presented by DNAbiotec (2013)

  •           Good clinical practice (GCP) training presented by Parexcel (2013)

  •           Essential Sequencing short course presented by DNAbiotec (2014)

  •           Ion Torrent Next Generation Sequencing world tour presented by Life Technologies (2014)

• Good Laboratory Practice certification presented by DNAbiotech (2016)
• Good clinical practice (GCP) training presented by Parexcel (2016)

Peer-reviewed publications:

Viljoen, CD, Dajee, BK and Botha, GM (2006). Detection of GMO in food products in South Africa: Implications of GMO labelling. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 (2), pp. 073-082.

Botha, GM and Viljoen, CD (2008). Can GM sorghum impact Africa? Trends in Biotechnology. 26 (2) pp. 64-69.

Botha, GM and Viljoen, CD (2009). South Africa: A case study for voluntary GM labelling. Food Chemistry 112, pp. 1060-1064.

Viljoen, CD and Marx, GM (2013). The implications for mandatory GM labeling under the Consumer Protection in South Africa. Food Control 31, pp. 387-391.

Yolandie Hayden, Taryn Pillay, Gerda Marx, Wimpie de Lange and Johannes M. Kuyl (2014). Pre-analytical stability of 25(OH)-vitamin D in primary collection tubes. Clin Chem Lab Med DOI 10.1515/cclm-2014-0543; Received May 23, 2014; accepted July 29 , 2014.

De Lange WJ, Pretorius J-L, Oosthuizen GM and Marx GM (2014). HIV/AIDS and Bone: The Next South African Pandemic? South African Family Practice.

Peer-reviewed conference presentations since 2015:

• Marx GM (2015). Genetic markers for Diabetes. 50^th SEMDSA conference Bloemfontein, South Africa
• Nienaber E and Marx GM (2017). Screening black South African females with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus for mutations in the Peroxisome Proliferator-activated receptor gamma gene. SEMDSA conference, Wanderers Johannesburg, South Africa
• Diseko L and Marx GM (2017). Screening for the presence of SNPs associated with T2DM in a South African population. South African Society for Human Genetics (SASHG) conference, Durban, South Africa
• Peta K and Marx GM (2017). Splice variant detection in Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) in a South African family. South African Society for Human Genetics (SASHG) conference, Durban, South Africa.
• Diseko L and Marx GM (2018). TCF7L2 SNP associated with T2DM in a central South African population. South African Genetics Society (SGS) conference, Golden Gate, South Africa.
• Marx GM and Peta K (2018). Hereditary Haemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) mutations in a central South African family. South African Genetics Society (SGS) conference, Golden Gate, South Africa.
• Marx GM, Diseko L and Bester PA (2018). Genetic variants associated with Type 2 Diabetes in a central South African population. International Congress of Endocrinology (ICE), Cape Town, South Africa.

Functional human molecular genetics

The application of molecular genetics and genomic techniques to study human disease susceptibility, disease pathogenesis and prevention.

The human genome has been sequenced and annotated with a vast amount of genetic information already available, including polymorphisms (genetic differences) between individuals. A major complication, is the fact that a single gene mutation or polymorphism will not impose the same effect among different individuals within a population or different populations. This variation is directly or indirectly affected by the genetic background at the individual, family or population levels and can be complicated further by interaction with environmental factors - also highly variable. For the majority of human diseases causal environmental risk factors are well known, for example obesity and lack of exercise are risk factors for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Yet, knowledge of the genetic influence on disease pathogenesis of most chronic and metabolic diseases are incomplete. Thus the focus of this research group is the application of molecular genetic techniques, such as real-time PCR gene expression, DNA methylation at epigenetic level and gene sequencing, to study human disease susceptibility, disease pathogenesis and prevention.

Undergraduate BSc Modules:

 Human Molecular Biology of Dietetics (HMBG2614)

Genetics in Practice (GENE3764)