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30 October 2020 | Story Leonie Bolleurs

The Department of Science and Technology has extended two of the National Research Foundation’s SARChI research chairs at the University of the Free State (UFS). 

The Research Chair in Diseases and Quality of Field Crops, together with the Research Chair in Vector-borne and Zoonotic Pathogens, have both been extended for another five years. 

Prof Maryke Labuschagne, currently Professor of Plant Breeding in the Department of Plant Sciences, is leading the chair on Diseases and Quality of Field Crops.

The Chair on Vector-borne and Zoonotic Pathogens is headed by Prof Felicity Burt from the Division of Virology in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research, says it was the hard work and commitment of Profs Labuschagne and Burt that resulted in the extension of the SARChI research chairs. “They have excelled in terms of student supervision and publications in high-impact international journals.  They also serve as mentors for young academics, postdoctoral fellows, and colleagues through their passion for their different fields of interest.”

Prof Witthuhn believes that this extension of the two SARChI chairs speaks of the progress that the UFS has made in terms of developing itself as a research-led university. “We are proud of the two senior academics for their supervision, mentorship, and leadership and their contribution to building our reputation,” she says. 

Diseases and Quality of Field Crops

The focus of the research chair in Diseases and Quality of Field Crops is on advancing food security and nutrition in Africa and contributing to poverty reduction and achieving sustainability goals. 

Prof Labuschagne says despite recent advances, the headlines regarding hunger and food security remain alarming: one in nine people on earth will go to bed hungry every night. Globally, 800 million people do not have enough to eat to be healthy, and a third of all deaths among children under five in developing countries are linked to undernourishment. 

She believes the uniqueness and strength of the research chair lies in a two-pronged approach, namely the breeding of cereal crops for resistance to fungal diseases, and improving the quality of crops for processing and consumption, thus making an impact on food security in South Africa and the rest of Africa through this collaborative effort. 

She is confident that the extension of the research chair will allow them to continue and to expand their research, “which has built up a lot of momentum”.

Besides the 12 PhD and 8 MSc degrees they delivered in the first five years, they also contributed significant research outputs and cultivar releases. She adds that they would like to expand on the significant international collaboration they have established. 

Vector-borne and Zoonotic Pathogens

According to Prof Burt, the SARChI chair in Vector-borne and Zoonotic Pathogens builds on existing research strengths at the UFS and aims to contribute towards identifying and investigating medically significant arboviruses and zoonotic viruses in the country.
 
“To date, the research chair has facilitated progress towards establishing serosurveillance studies for various vector-borne viruses, specifically Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus, a tick-borne and zoonotic virus that causes severe disease with fatalities.”

The team of researchers operating within this research chair is currently also performing studies to determine the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the Free State.

Prof Burt has always taken the importance of community engagement into account, and with the current pandemic, she believes that it is now more important than ever to increase public awareness of zoonotic diseases.

She emphasises that the majority of new and emerging viruses are zoonotic in origin and that the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic highlights the impact of an emerging zoonotic pathogen on society. Therefore, she feels that it is important to build capacity in this field and to focus research efforts on identifying and understanding where these pathogens cycle in nature, the potential for spill-over to humans, and what the drivers are for the emergence of these pathogens.

Prof Burt trusts that the renewal of the research chair will allow them to take advantage of the new biosafety laboratory that the UFS has invested in. “This will permit us to research pathogens that were previously excluded from our programme due to biosafety considerations.  The chair will furthermore contribute towards enhancing, strengthening, and developing research and knowledge in the field of epidemiology and pathogenesis of vector-borne and zoonotic viruses,” she says. 

News Archive

Nanotechnology breakthrough at UFS
2010-08-19

 Ph.D students, Chantel Swart and Ntsoaki Leeuw


Scientists at the University of the Free State (UFS) made an important breakthrough in the use of nanotechnology in medical and biological research. The UFS team’s research has been accepted for publication by the internationally accredited Canadian Journal of Microbiology.

The UFS study dissected yeast cells exposed to over-used cooking oil by peeling microscopically thin layers off the yeast cells through the use of nanotechnology.

The yeast cells were enlarged thousands of times to study what was going on inside the cells, whilst at the same time establishing the chemical elements the cells are composed of. This was done by making microscopically small surgical incisions into the cell walls.

This groundbreaking research opens up a host of new uses for nanotechnology, as it was the first study ever in which biological cells were surgically manipulated and at the same time elemental analysis performed through nanotechnology. According to Prof. Lodewyk Kock, head of the Division Lipid Biotechnology at the UFS, the study has far reaching implications for biological and medical research.

The research was the result of collaboration between the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, the Department of Physics (under the leadership of Prof. Hendrik Swart) and the Centre for Microscopy (under the leadership of Prof.Pieter van Wyk).

Two Ph.D. students, Chantel Swart and Ntsoaki Leeuw, overseen by professors Kock and Van Wyk, managed to successfully prepare yeast that was exposed to over-used cooking oil (used for deep frying of food) for this first ever method of nanotechnological research.

According to Prof. Kock, a single yeast cell is approximately 5 micrometres long. “A micrometre is one millionth of a metre – in laymen’s terms, even less than the diameter of a single hair – and completely invisible to the human eye.”

Through the use of nanotechnology, the chemical composition of the surface of the yeast cells could be established by making a surgical incision into the surface. The cells could be peeled off in layers of approximately three (3) nanometres at a time to establish the effect of the oil on the yeast cell’s composition. A nanometre is one thousandth of a micrometre.

Each cell was enlarged by between 40 000 and 50 000 times. This was done by using the Department of Physics’ PHI700 Scanning Auger Nanoprobe linked to a Scanning Electron Microscope and Argon-etching. Under the guidance of Prof. Swart, Mss. Swart en Leeuw could dissect the surfaces of yeast cells exposed to over-used cooking oil. 

The study noted wart like outgrowths - some only a few nanometres in diameter – on the cell surfaces. Research concluded that these outgrowths were caused by the oil. The exposure to the oil also drastically hampered the growth of the yeast cells. (See figure 1)  

Researchers worldwide have warned about the over-usage of cooking oil for deep frying of food, as it can be linked to the cause of diseases like cancer. The over-usage of cooking oil in the preparation of food is therefore strictly regulated by laws worldwide.

The UFS-research doesn’t only show that over-used cooking oil is harmful to micro-organisms like yeast, but also suggests how nanotechnology can be used in biological and medical research on, amongst others, cancer cells.

 

Figure 1. Yeast cells exposed to over-used cooking oil. Wart like protuberances/ outgrowths (WP) is clearly visible on the surfaces of the elongated yeast cells. With the use of nanotechnology, it is possible to peel off the warts – some with a diameter of only a few nanometres – in layers only a few nanometres thick. At the same time, the 3D-structure of the warts as well as its chemical composition can be established.  

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt@ufs.ac.za  
18 August 2010
 

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