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360º PERSPECTIVES | ISSUE 7 | 2020/2021
Industry and science combine to combat neurodegenerative diseases » South Africa’s unique biodiversity offers huge potential in the identification of novel pharmaceutical leads to combat a range of human diseases.
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HIS IS THE FOCUS OF THE POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH AT THE INSTITUTE OF MICROBIAL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND METAGENOMICS
(IMBM) at the University of Western Cape (UWC). However, to bring the leads from these studies to the market requires a concerted effort between academia and
industry, says microbiologist Professor Marla Trindade, Director of the IMBM. “As a university institute, we have an obligation to focus on projects that meet the minimum criteria for postgraduate studies, the nature of which is not always suitable for industry to formally engage with us,” says Prof Trindade, who is also the DST/NRF SARChI Research Chair in Microbial Genomics. To address this, Dr Anita Burger was appointed as the Research and Innovation Manager of IMBM to promote industry partnerships by identifying points of