Medical Biochemistry at University of Cape Town

ACADEMIC STAFF

Head of Division

Prof Peter Meissner

Email: peter.meissner@uct.ac.za
Tel: +27 21 406 6206

[ IIDMM member site ]

Prof Arieh A Katz

Email: arieh.katz@uct.ac.za
Tel: +27 21 406 6268

Arieh Katz received his Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel in 1990. Thereafter, he moved to California Institute of Technology, U.S.A. for post-doctoral training in the laboratory of Professor Melvin I. Simon. There, he spent 4 years working on the identification and characterization of G-protein subunits which activate phosphoinositide specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) and showed that the Gβγ subunits, as well as certain Gα subunits, activate PI-PLC. In 1995, Arieh Katz moved to the Department of Chemical Pathology at University of Cape Town to join the research group of Professor R.P. Millar. There, he got involved in studying the GnRH receptor which is a G protein-coupled receptor that signals via PI-PLC. In 1997 Arieh Katz was awarded a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship in Medical Science which enabled him to set up his own research group and in 1998 Arieh Katz joined the Division of Medical Biochemistry. In 2001 Dr. Katz together with Dr. Colleen Flanagan established the MRC/UCT Research Group for Receptor Biology.

Prof Jonathan Blackburn

Email: jonathan.blackburn@uct.ac.za
Tel: +27 21 406 6071

Jonathan graduated from the University of Oxford with a 1st class Honours degree in Chemistry and was later awarded a doctorate by the University of Oxford for his studies with Professor Sir Jack Baldwin, FRS, on penicillin biosynthesis. Jonathan then moved to the University of Cambridge where he carried out post-doctoral research on the directed evolution of new enzymes in the group of Professor Sir Alan Fersht, FRS.

Jonathan holds a South African Research Chair in Applied Proteomics & Chemical Biology at the University of Cape Town, a post he took up in January 2008. He also holds an Extraordinary Professorship in the Department of Biotechnology, University of the Western Cape, as well as a visiting fellowship at the University of Manchester, where he is a member of the UK Glycomics consortium (www.glycoarrays.org.uk).

In 2006, Jonathan co-founded the Centre for Proteomic & Genomic Research (CPGR; www.cpgr.org.za) in Cape Town and is today the Research Director of that not-for-profit organisation. The CPGR is a world class, core technology facility that provides access to a state-of-the-art equipment infrastructure, combined with technical expertise, in the proteomic and genomic fields. The CPGR is today housed in purpose-build laboratories within the Institute of Infectious Disease & Molecular Medicine (IIDMM) at the University of Cape Town.

Whilst at the University of Cambridge, in 1998 Jonathan founded a start-up biotechnology company, Sense Proteomic Ltd, to commercialise the protein function microarray technology invented in his academic group. For two years, Jonathan took secondment leave from Cambridge to act as an Executive Director and Chief Scientific Officer of the company. During this time, Sense Proteomic developed world-leading protein function array technology suitable for use in the high throughput study of protein-drug interactions, amongst others. Following a takeover, in January 2003 Jonathan became the Chief Scientist of Procognia Ltd, an organisation which employed >70 people in the UK, Israel and the USA; he held this post until early 2006.

In the past 10 years, Jonathan has raised ca. £4.5m in venture capital investment to finance a UK start-up biotechnology company, around R15m in independent academic grant funding in the UK and South Africa, a consortium grant of ca. £3m, and R20m to found the Centre for Proteomic & Genomic Research in Cape Town. He is the inventor on 9 granted patents and 11 pending patents, and has published much innovative research in leading scientific journals.

Prof Iqbal Parker

Email: iqbal.parker@uct.ac.za
Tel: +27 21 406 6259
Fax: +27 21 406 6060

[ IIDMM member site ]

Prof Ed Sturrock

Email: edward.sturrock@uct.ac.za
Tel: +27 21 406 6312
Fax: +27 21 406 6061

[ IIDMM member site ]

PhD; Professor Sturrock is a Wellcome Trust International Research Fellow in the IIDMM at the University of Cape Town. He received his PhD in 1993 working on the synthesis and metabolism of bilirubin, and went on to do a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. At Harvard he investigated the glycosylation and disulfide requirements of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE), a protein that plays a key role in blood pressure regulation. This work paved the way for studies on the three-dimensional crystal structure of the enzyme and the structure-based design and synthesis of novel domain-selective inhibitors. His research interests include: structure-function aspects of ACE; design and synthesis of ACE inhibitors; the processing of the membrane-anchored proteins; and the role of urinary proteins in the formation of kidney stones. Together with colleagues in the US and UK, he founded a spin-off company AngioDesign Inc in 2003.

Prof Trevor Sewell

Email: trevor.sewell@uct.ac.za

[ IIDMM member site ]

Emeritus Prof Robert Millar

Email: robert.millar@uct.ac.za

Assoc Prof Denver Hendricks

Email: denver.hendricks@uct.ac.za
Tel: +27 21 406 6269
Fax: +27 21 406 6061

Denver Hendricks was awarded a BSc cum laude (with majors in Biochemistry and Zoology) at the University of the Western Cape, in South Africa in 1981. He transferred to the University of Cape Town where he was awarded a BSc Med Hons First Class in Medical Biochemistry (1982), and a PhD in Medical Biochemistry (1989) on "HDL and LDL metabolism in HepG2 cells". Thereafter he held a Senior Lectureship in the Biochemistry Department, at the University of the Western Cape (1989 - 1995). In 1996 (up to 2000) he held an International Exchange Scientist and Visiting Fellow position in the laboratory of Michael Birrer at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, USA. Whilst there he examined the molecular mechanisms involved in the development of gynaecologic cancers (mostly ovarian and cervical cancers). In 2001 he joined the Department of Medical Biochemistry at UCT, as a Senior Lecturer, where he has been involved in his research programme exploring the molecular mechanisms of cancer and teaching medical biochemistry to medical students and BSc Hons students.

Assoc Prof Virna Leaner

Email: virna.leaner@uct.ac.za
Tel: +27 21 4066250

PhD in Medical Biochemistry:	University of Cape Town, South Africa 1998
Postdoctoral Fellow:	National Cancer Institute, NIH, Maryland, USA 1998 - 2003
MRC (SA) Career Award Fellow:	University of Cape Town 2004 to July 2006
Senior Lecturer:	University of Cape Town Aug 2006

Dr Cynthia N T Sikakana

Email: cynthia.sikakana@uct.ac.za
Tel: +27 21 406 6250

BSc	Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA
PhD in Biochemistry:	University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
Senior Lecturer:	Division of Medical Biochemistry, University of Cape Town