Six Rhodes students were recently awarded Claude Leon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships for 2010. Michael Ludewig, Susan van Dyk, Kit Magellan and Madan Kamilla were awarded new fellowships for two years of postdoctoral study. Dr Eva Pesce and Earl Prinsloo, currently fellows of the Foundation, received renewed funding for a third year of postdoctoral research.

The Claude Leon Fellowship is now in its twelfth year and trustees of the Foundation seek to upgrade research at South African universities in the faculties of Science, Engineering and Medical Sciences. The awards are highly competitive and are based on the applicants' academic achievements while also taking their potential as researchers into consideration.?

The Foundation aims to increase the volume and quality of research output, transfer of technical skills and generally enhancing the research culture at South African universities through their Fellowships. Although the fellows are not directly involved in undergraduate teaching, they do contribute to postgraduate research training. The fellowships are awarded for two years and are worth R150 000 per annum. It is to be highly commended that Dr Pesce and Dr Prinsloo (both of the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology) have been awared this fellowship for a third year.

Dr Brett Pletschke, Acting Head of the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology and the supervisor of Susan van Dyk, described her as well-deserved and further said he expects great things for her research career. “This award also reflects well on the supervisor because the judging committee looks at the quality of student, laboratory and supervisor,” he said.

Van Dyk works actively with Pletschke on a bilateral research project in collaboration with Prof Kazua Sakka from Mie University in Japan. Their key objective is to discover novel multi-enzyme complexes in bacteria which can be used for the degradation of complex biomass for subsequent biofuel production. Van Dyk will be continuing her research on this project into her postdoctoral career.

Michael Ludewig, also from the Biochemistry, Microbiology and Biotechnology Department is currently investigating the function of a group of proteins called heat shock proteins or stress proteins in Trypanosoma brucei (the pathogen associated with African Sleeping Sickness). The results of this study may potentially lay the platform for new treatments of sleeping sickness.

“I am honoured and humbled by this great opportunity. This fellowship will be of great help to me in my post PhD research career,” said Ludewig. “This is a good stepping stone to something further, a good opportunity to make a name for myself as a postdoctoral researcher in the field,” he said. Ludewig hopes to pursue an academic career researching the molecules of pathogens involved in the development of disease and infection. Many pathogens have been known to remodel their hosts for their own purposes and he is interested in these processes.

Prof Greg Blatch, who was Ludewig’s PhD supervisor, said that he is grateful to the Claude Leon Foundation for giving Ludewig the opportunity to progress with his research before embarking on an academic career where he will also teach. “Landing a postdoc award is a privilege because there are only a handful of fellowships available which allow people to do research at the postdoc level,” he said.

Dr Madan Kamila is to be based within the Faculty of Pharmacy, and arrives from India in 2010 to work with Professor Rod Walker on the development of suitable anti-cancer drug formulations for brain tumor targeting, using nanocarriers.

Dr Kit Magellan based at the Department of Ichthyology and Fisheries Science and originally from the United Kingdom, does research into fish behaviour. “It is very exciting that she won this award,” said Dr Heather Davies-Coleman, Manager of Rhodes University's Research Administration, explaining that very few reserachers in South Africa work in this field.

Davies-Coleman added that this award is not usually given to PhD candidates to carry on with their postdoctoral research within the same department and not usually renewed into a third year. “This is in recognition of the high quality research emanating from the Department of Biochemistry,” she said. “It is very prestigious that Rhodes has had six Claude Leon Fellowships awarded this year and the Research Office is very proud of this achievement.”

Story by Nompumezo Makinana