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24 December 2018 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Anja Aucamp
Research possibilities of zebrafish exposed
Leading global genetics laboratories are replacing research on human and animal populations with zebrafish, says Prof Paul Grobler, Head of the UFS Department of Genetics.

The UFS Department of Genetics is on par with current research trends in terms of their zebrafish project. About a year has passed since they seriously started focusing on the potential of this tiny four-centimetre-long fish, and the possibilities are hugely exciting.

Looks are deceiving

Leading global genetics laboratories are replacing research on human and animal populations with zebrafish due to several fascinating reasons, of which the most profound is probably that the zebrafish share large portions of its genome with mammals. For genetics researchers this may make a lot of sense, but most people battle to see any resemblance between a six-foot-tall rugby player or 600 kg buffalo and a small, nearly transparent fish. It is in the detail, the researchers say.

Fast, effective, and visible

“The complete genome sequence of the zebrafish is known, and as much as 84% of genes known to be associated with human disease have zebrafish counterparts,” explains Head of Department, Prof Paul Grobler. Another advantage is the fast breeding rate and short generation time, and the fact that some research is ethically more justifiable when done on fish larvae rather than on adult mammals. The fact that zebrafish embryos are virtually transparent, also allow researchers to examine the development of internal structures without effort. Every blood vessel in a living zebrafish embryo is visible under a low-power microscope.

Multidisciplinary

Zebrafish provide research potential for many different study fields besides that of Prof Grobler and his team, Sue Rica Schneider and Dr Willem Coetzer. In the near future, they aim to have undergraduate students use zebrafish as a research model to develop a real sense of research and laboratory work. The Department of Chemistry are also initiating research on zebrafish housed in the Department of Genetics.

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Prof Marais awarded the first UFS Book Prize for Distinguished Scholarship
2015-03-19

Prof Kobus Marais

Prof Kobus Marais, from the Department of Linguistics and Language Practice, was recently awarded the UFS Book Prize for Distinguished Scholarship for 2014.

The prize, awarded for its first time in 2014, consists of an inscribed certificate of honour with a monetary award of R50 000 paid into Marais’s research entity. The book for which Marais received this award is Translation Theory and Development Studies: A Complex Theory Approach (2014, Routledge, New York).

“It falls within the discipline of translation studies, but it is actually an interdisciplinary approach, linking translation studies and development studies,” says Marais.

Therefore, it aims to provide a philosophical underpinning to translation, and relate translation to development.

“The second aim flows from the first section’s argument that societies emerge out of, amongst others, complex translational interactions amongst individuals,” Marais says. “It will do so by conceptualising translation from a complexity and emergence point of view, and by relating this view on emergent semiotics to some of the most recent social research.”

It fulfils its aim further by providing empirical data from the South African context concerning the relationship between translation and development. The book intends to be interdisciplinary in nature, and to foster interdisciplinary research and dialogue by relating the newest trends in translation theory, i.e. agency theory in the sociology of translation, to development theory within sociology. 

“Data are drawn from fields that have received very little if any attention in translation studies, i.e. local economic development, the knowledge economy, and the informal economy, says Marais.”

The UFS Book Prize for Distinguished Scholarship was initiated in 2014 to bestow recognition on any permanent staff member of the UFS for outstanding publications which consist of research published as an original book, on the condition that the greater part (50% or more) of the book has not been published previously. This stimulates the production of significant and original contributions of international quality by our staff. In this way, the UFS is striving, through a series of award-winning books, to enhance the quality of specialised works published by our staff members.

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