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UFS urges COP26 to make bold decisions on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

31 October 2021 | Story Prof Francis Petersen

The University of the Free State (UFS) calls on all higher education institutions, business, the private and public sector, and the South African community to confirm their commitment towards climate change and to contribute to climate change interventions.

“The UFS is committed to contributing meaningfully through research, innovation, policy advice, activism, and the operational management of the university to a fairer, cleaner, and healthier world, and urges world leaders to make bold decisions on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the upcoming Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) meeting in Glasgow,” says Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor.

The UFS supports the United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and in particular Goal 13, which calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impact and is committed to underpinning it in the institution’s strategy and operations.

According to Prof Petersen, the university is developing a response to positively impact society and is using the SDGs as basis for this response. “This will incorporate our operations in terms of green and sustainable campuses, as well as the Academic Project in terms of quality research, engaged scholarship, and strategic partnerships with government, communities, and different sectors of the economy. A response to the SDGs is a significant step towards our commitment to play a role in climate change,” says Prof Petersen.

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Nano research at the UFS opens door to smart drugs

2011-06-27

Prof. Lodewyk Kock, outstanding professor in our Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology

Novel antifungal, anticancer and anti-malaria drugs that have been identified in the research of Prof. Lodewyk Kock, outstanding professor in the Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology at our university, will be disclosed later this year at major international conferences in Asia, Europe and the USA. Prof. Kock will be the keynote speaker at these conferences.

His presentations will be based on the department’s discovery of yeast assays linked to a new nanotechnology for medicine. The assays were recently discovered by his group and can be applied in the development of novel antifungal, anticancer and anti-malaria drugs.

Prof. Kock’s focused research at the university, which now also includes his novel nanotechnology for Biology, began in 1982 in collaboration with Prof. Pieter van Wyk (Centre for Microscopy). He recently collaborated with Prof. Hendrik Swart (Department of Physics).

Prof. Kock says the development of novel anti-malaria drugs in particular is getting attention across the world due to the high rates of morbidity and mortality caused by the disease worldwide. Approximately 225 million people are infected annually and about a million (many in Africa) die each year. “Many potential smart drugs have been identified with this research and should now be tested further,” says Kock.

These new drugs will be disclosed during Prof. Kock’s keynote addresses at the International Conference and Exhibition on Pharmaceutical Regulatory Affairs in Baltimore, USA, from 6 to 7 September 2011, the Medichem 2011 in Beijing, China from 9 to 11 August 2011 and the XVI Congress of European Mycologists in Greece, from 19 to 23 September 2011.

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