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09 September 2020 | Story Lacea Loader

 


The South African Economy: 'Post-COVID-19, Post-Crisis'


As a public higher-education institution in South Africa with a responsibility to contribute to public discourse, the University of the Free State (UFS) will be presenting the 3rd UFS Thought-Leader Series as part of the Vrystaat Literature Festival’s online initiative, VrySpraak-digitaal and in collaboration with Vrye Weekblad


This year, higher-education institutions globally are situated within a challenging context of COVID-19. Aware of, and grounded in the reality that the world will not return to the normality of pre-COVID-19, our responsibility as scholars still remains to contribute to public discourse and offer innovative solutions that will impact the lives of people nationally and globally to help them understand and adapt to a new world order. 

Against this background and context, this year’s debates focus on Post-COVID-19, Post-Crisis with Health and Modelling, the Economy, Politics and Predictions for 2021 as the sub-themes. Placed within a COVID-19 context, and in lieu of the Free State Arts Festival, the series will be presented virtually, in the form of one webinar per month, from August 2020 to November 2020. 

Second webinar presented on 23 September 2020

The South African economy was already in the doldrums before the COVID-19 crisis. Recent data from the NIDS-CRAM study suggests that as many as 3 million people might have lost their jobs as a result of the lockdown. In addition, the government's debt burden has deteriorated. What are the prospects for the South African economy post-COVID-19, post-Crisis?

 
Date: 23 September 2020
Topic: The South African Economy: Post-COVID-19, Post-Crisis
Time: 11:00-12:30

RSVP: Alicia Pienaar, pienaaran1@ufs.ac.za by 18 September 2020 

Facilitator:

Editor: Vrye Weekblad 
Biography

Introduction and welcome:

Rector and Vice-Chancellor, UFS

Panellists:

Chairperson: Old Mutual Limited
Biography

Ms Ann Bernstein
Executive Director, Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE)

Editor-in-Chief of City Press
Biography

 


News Archive

Collaboration between UFS and Mayo Clinic to revolutionise cancer treatment
2014-06-27



Attending the lecture were, from the left: Dr Chantel Swart, Prof Lodewyk Kock, Prof Debabrata Mukhopadhyay, Prof James du Preez; back: Prof Pieter van Wyk.
Dr Swart, Profs Kock and Du Preez are from the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology. Prof Mukhopadhyay is from the Mayo Clinic (US) and Prof Van Wyk is from the Centre for Microscopy at the UFS.
Photo: Supplied
The UFS made a discovery that may have enormous implications for the treatment of diseases in humans.

Since the discovery, the UFS joined forces with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, US, in the fight against cancer.

In this collective effort, UFS researchers would be able to assist the Mayo team to:
• see how treatment in cancer patients is progressing,
• target treatments more effectively,
• reduce dosages in order to make treatment gentler on the patient,
• track the effectiveness of the chemotherapy drugs used, and
• gain an accurate view of how the cancer is being eliminated.

Prof Lodewyk Kock, Outstanding Professor at the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology, and his team incidentally created a technique to use argon gas particles for the first time on biological material to slice open cells to look inside.

The team that supported Prof Kock includes Dr Chantel Swart, Khumisho Dithebe (PhD student), Prof Hendrik Swart (Department of Physics) and Prof Pieter van Wyk (Centre for Microscopy).

Prof Debabrata Mukhopadhyay from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, US, got to hear about this breakthrough at the UFS and a collaboration between the two institutions was established.

During a visit to the Bloemfontein Campus, Prof Mukhopadhyay explained novel techniques that make use of gold nanoparticles. These particles attach to chemotherapeutic drugs to selectively target cancer cells – dramatically decreasing the side effects to normal human cells.

For these new drugs (coupled to gold nanoparticles) to be accepted into clinical practice, visual and chemical proof is needed, though. This is where the technique developed by the UFS will play a vital role.

With the technique to look inside cells, the composition, location and metabolism of these drugs can be determined. This will aid in a proof of concept for the application of the nano-drugs. Furthermore, it will enable approval for use of these drugs in clinical trials and eventually could revolutionise cancer treatment as a whole.

For video lectures on the technique used, as well as its findings, follow these links:

1. http://vimeo.com/63643628 (Comic version for school kids)

2. http://vimeo.com/61521401 (Detailed version for fellow scientists)

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