Experimental Medicine
??Teaching and learning
Postgra?duate studies
We offer the degree MSc (Experimental Medicine), as well as PhD (Internal Medicine). Please contact Prof Smith at csmith@sun.ac.za (Disease modelling and drug discovery) or Assoc Prof Van de Vyver at vandevyverm@sun.ac.za (Diabetes and regenerative medicine) for more information on available supervisors and projects.
Some examples of current research topics:
- Exploring the genetic basis of lupus nephritis: focus on under-researched African populations
- Afrocentric biomarker and therapeutic target identification in the context of lupus nephritis
- Drug discovery in a zebrafish model of nephritis
- Profiling fibrosis and inflammatory dysregulation at tissue level in human rheumatoid myocarditis
- Modelling rheumatoid myocarditis in larval and adult zebrafish: a drug discovery approach
- Functional microbial dysbiosis and trace amine profile in autism spectrum disorder
- Autism spectrum disorder: potential for therapeutic modulation of trace aminergic signalling across the gut-brain axis
- Multimodal characterisation of mitochondrial dysfunction in autism spectrum disorder
- Anxiety: finding new treatment modalities via disease modelling in zebrafish
- Regeneration in health and disease: understanding the dysregulated healing responses in hard-to-heal diabetic wounds.
- Assessing the efficacy and mechanism of action of novel regenerative modalities for the treatment of diabetic wounds
- Exploring the use of senomorphic and senolytic agents to prevent metabolic disease progression
- Understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms involved in the functional decline of mesenchymal stem cells in diabetes
- Investigating the potential of plant-derived extracts to modulate redox and inflammatory signalling in multiple disease contexts.
- Characterising adipose signalling dysfunction in chronic inflammatory disease states.??
