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Wamkelekile, Welkom
Wamkelekile, Welkom
Origins of a COVID-19 vaccine or the future of robotic surgery – UCT Summer School 2022 has it all
How was the world able to get a COVID-19 vaccine in a few months when it usually takes a few years? At the University of Cape Town (UCT) Summer School, Dr Sean Elias, post-doctoral scientist and public engagement with research leader at the Jenner Institute, United Kingdom will share how the Oxford/Astra-Zeneca vaccine went from concept to licensure.
04 Jan 2022
New website documents the Cape Town urban water cycle
A new website on the urban water cycle in Cape Town is linking current research on the urban water cycle in the greater Cape Town area, with the public. It is intended as a generative political engagement with the City and its citizens to empower citizens who are not yet equipped to defend themselves from official rhetoric and reductionist claims about the urban water cycle, justice and sanitation.
27 Jan 2021
New study finds that blood biomarker of TB discriminates between people with high risk and those who remained healthy
Researchers from the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (SATVI) at the University of Cape Town, in collaboration with various partners in their field, have published the results from a study into a blood-based RNA biomarker. The study, which tested diagnostic and prognostic performance for TB and the efficacy of TB preventive therapy for biomarker-positive individuals, was published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal .
26 Jan 2021
Expert calls for rapid vaccination to achieve population immunity
“Without rapid vaccination of at least two thirds of the population, we are not going to get to population immunity in the country, and without that, we will see another wave.” This is according to Professor Marc Mendelson, who recently presented a virtual Summer School lecture titled “COVID-19 insights and lessons”.
20 Jan 2021
Supporting the publishing of African-centric research – new platform
UCT Libraries has developed a new a continental platform for open access publishing in Africa. The platform allows the African research community to take ownership of creating and sharing its own scholarly content (including open access journals and open access monographs and textbooks), which contributes to the growth and development of local research for African society.
12 Jan 2021
UCT Faculty of Health Sciences calls for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccine access in South Africa
The havoc wrought by the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 created enormous challenges for public health and health services which have been met with exceptional courage and fortitude by healthcare workers across the world. In addition, this new disease has caused substantial social, economic and psychological devastation in all countries.
08 Jan 2021
Win-win for wind energy and eagles – new tool helps locate areas for safe turbine development
The rapid uptake of wind energy globally offers hope of a transition towards sustainable renewable energy but it can also present a real threat to soaring birds of prey. A new tool offers hope of a win-win solution that allows developers to rapidly identify the best locations for their wind turbines while minimising the risk of collision for one special bird of prey, the Verreaux’s Eagle.
05 Jan 2021
UCT among top 40 international universities
The University of Cape Town (UCT) has been ranked 39th in the recently released Times Higher Education (THE) list of the 200 most international universities. These institutions collaborate on research across the world, have a strong reputation globally and have a high proportion of international students and staff.
31 Jan 2020
New study sheds light on genetics of schizophrenia in South Africa
A recent international study including several University of Cape Town researchers emphasises that rare genetic mutations may play an important role in the cause of the illness. The study, “Genetics of Schizophrenia in the South African Xhosa,” published in the journal Science, is the first genetic analysis of schizophrenia in an ancestral African population, the South African amaXhosa.
31 Jan 2020
The “firewalkers” of Karoo: dinosaurs and other animals left tracks in a “land of fire”
In southern Africa, dinosaurs and synapsids, a group of animals that includes mammals and their closest fossil relatives, survived in a “land of fire” at the start of an Early Jurassic mass extinction, according to a study published on 29 January 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE led by Associate Professor Emese M. Bordy, a sedimentologist at the University of Cape Town.
30 Jan 2020
UCT honours late Professor Bongani Mayosi with befitting legacy project
The University of Cape Town (UCT) is celebrating and honouring the legacy of the late Professor Bongani Mayosi through a collection of projects under the banner of the Bongani Mayosi Legacy Project. These include the library project, the Mayosi Research collaborative, the Bongani Mayosi Foundation and a permanent exhibition of his work, to name a few.
29 Jan 2020
UCT creates unique programme to empower women in local government
The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at UCT has partnered with the Local Government Sector Education and Training, the South African Local Government Association and Zenande Leadership Consulting to create a unique Local Government Women’s Leadership Development Programme.
22 Jan 2020
Innovative community-based intervention to identify undiagnosed TB cases
Almost 350 000 cases of Tuberculosis (TB) go undiagnosed in South Africa every year. In an effort to revolutionalise TB diagnosis and treatment, an innovative tech-driven project, pioneered by a team of scientists at the UCT Centre for Lung Infection and Immunity, will take TB testing from the lab into the community.
21 Jan 2020
Improving universal access to surgical care for patients – meet UCT’s new head of Global Surgery
The thrill and excitement of the labour ward and the pure joy of witnessing a healthy mom receiving a healthy baby led to Associate Professor Salome Maswime, the new head of Global Surgery at the University of Cape Town (UCT), falling in love with the labour ward. But it was also the deep disappointment of losing a new mother that persuaded her that she needed to learn and do more.
20 Jan 2020
South African vultures have their fill at ‘restaurants’ – new study
There’s no menu and the food is sometimes rotten. Yet South Africa’s vulture restaurants are dishing up valuable information for researchers working to conserve Africa’s scavenger species, according to a new scientific study published in the International journal Animal Conservation.
16 Jan 2020