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Introducing the UFS Social Media Squad

23 November 2022 | Story Moeketsi Mogotsi | Photo Barend Nagel

UFS Social squad — Tyrone Willard, Nkosinathi-Mandla Zulu, Kai Carter, and Mella Ubedoble are the new UFS social media ambassadors. The UFS social media ambassadors initiave was formerly known as the #KovsieCyberSta.

Say hello to the UFS Social Media Squad. The team comprises a few new faces that will grace the UFS social media platforms from time to time.

The UFS Social Media Squad (also known as SMS) will cover events in and around the UFS, while giving the UFS community insight into these events across the UFS digital platforms.

This initiative was formerly known as the #KovsieCyberSta programme. You might have seen their faces somewhere before, but now you can hear how they feel about joining the SMS team.

Introducing Tyrone Willard, Nkosinathi-Mandla Zulu, Kai Carter, and Mella Ubedoble!

Nkosinathi-Mandla Zulu is a vibrant 21-year-old UFS ambassador working towards his Honours in Journalism and Media Studies. Mandla is a journalist, radio broadcaster, and marketing intern. While established as a runway and editorial model, he is also a social media influencer. He enjoys a good cup of matcha while reading a book.

Kai Carter: "I'm a tennis player, table tennis player, skateboarder, fashion enthusiast, boy next door, all-around cool kid. Basically, I’m everything and more, google me in five years to see what I'm up to." – Kai signing out!

Mella Ubedoble: "I have always been creative. I grew up enjoying being crafty with paper and decorating, and this background has led me to an evolving passion for fine arts. All my various creations have a similar foundation, which has a narrative approach where I use them as platforms to tell a conceptually inspired story ... Every experience is an adventure for me, especially if it is kept as media, since I believe that the camera is the keeper of memories."

Tyrone Willard is a master’s student at the University of the Free State. He has had the opportunity to serve the student community in student leadership and entertain the different campuses as an MC and speaker at many institutional and residence events. Tyrone is someone who strives to work hard and set a good example of being an all-rounder and looking after oneself. One will never feel bored or not entertained, as he loves to put and keep people in a positive and light mood.

News Archive

Newly operational sequencing unit in genomics at UFS

2016-09-09

Description: Next Generation Sequencing Tags: Next Generation Sequencing

Dr Martin Nyaga and his research assistant,
Tshidiso Mogotsi in the Next Generation
Sequencing Laboratory.
Photo: Charl Devenish

The Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) unit at the UFS was established as an interdisciplinary facility under the Directorate for Research Development, Faculty of Health Sciences and Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

The aim of the NGS facility is to aid internal and external investigators undertaking studies on Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing, assembly and bioinformatics approaches using the more advanced Illumina MiSeq NGS platform.

The NGS unit became operational in 2016 and is managed by Dr Martin Nyaga and administered through the office of the Dean, Faculty of Health Sciences, under the leadership of Prof Gert Van Zyl. Dr Nyaga has vast experience in microbial genomics, having done his PhD in Molecular Virology.

He has worked and collaborated with globally recognised centres of excellence in Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic genomics, namely the J. Craig Venter Institute and the Laboratory of Viral Metagenomics, Rega Institute, among others.

The unit has undertaken several projects and successfully generated data on bacterial, viral and human genomes. Currently, work is ongoing on bacterial and fungal metagenomics studies through 16S rRNA sequencing.

In addition, the unit is also working on plasmid/insert sequencing and whole genome sequencing of animal and human rotaviruses. The unit has capacity to undertake other kinds of panels like the HLA, Pan-cancer and Tumor 15 sequencing, among others.

Several investigators from the UFS including but not limited to Prof Felicity Burt, Prof Wijnand Swart, Dr Frans O’Neil, Dr Trudi O'Neill, Dr Charlotte Boucher, Dr Marieka Gryzenhout and Dr Kamaldeen Baba are actively in collaboration with the NGS unit.

The unit has also invested in other specialised equipment such as the M220 Focused-ultrasonicator (Covaris), 2100 Bioanalyzer system (Agilent) and the real-time PCR cycler, the Rotor-Gene Q (Qiagen), which both the UFS and external investigators can use for their research.

Investigators working on molecular and related studies are encouraged to engage with Dr Nyaga on how they would like to approach their genomics projects at the UFS NGS unit.

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