South African Structural Biology Initiative
A collaborative programme in Structural Biology among leading South African Universities
Home » StaffSASBI Collaborators
Eric Strauss
A/Prof Trevor Sewell (University of Cape Town)
Dr Val Abratt (University of Cape Town)
Dr Colin Kenyon (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research)
Prof Hugh Patterton (University of the Free State)
Prof Heini Dirr (University of the Witwatersrand)
External Consultants
Dr Alan Roseman (University of Manchester)
Dr Colin Kenyon (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research)
Prof Ed Egelman (University of Virginia) will lecture on helical structures.
Dr Michael Lawrence (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research)
Prof Heini Dirr (University of the Witwatersrand) will act as External examiner.
Prof Tom Blundell (University of Cambridge) will evaluate the program as a whole.
Prof Helen Saibil (Birkbeck College London ) will lecture on single particle reconstruction techniques and proteins known as chaperonins.
Academic Staff
University of Cape Town
Programme Co-ordinator: A/Prof Trevor Sewell (Electron Microscope Unit) is Director of the Electron Microscope Unit (an inter-faculty and regional resource centre) and also has experience in computer-based education. He is actively engaged in research in the field of structural biology. In addition to his co-ordinating role, Prof Sewell will present lectures on the determination of the three-dimensional structures of cells using tomography and single particle methods for the determination of macromolecular structure. He will also present workshops explaining some of the major achievements of structural biology studies on large structures including the ribosome.
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Lecturer: Dr Arvind Varsani (Electron Microscope Unit) has a Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Molecular Biology background. He will present lectures on various aspects of virus structures, assist in the electron microscopy module and provide molecular biology support for the programme.
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Deputy Programme Co-ordinator: A/Prof David McIntosh (Division of Chemical Pathology) will co-ordinate the programme at UCT's Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IIDMM). He will also present a workshop on the special problems associated with the structure determination of membrane proteins as well as a series of lectures in which major achievements of structural biology are reviewed in context.
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Lecturer: Dr Val Abratt (Department of Molecular and Cell Biology) will introduce students to enzyme pathways in nitrogen metabolism and show how structural research in this area can potentially lead to the control of certain pathogens. Dr Abratt has an established laboratory for the study of nitrogen metabolism which has given rise to a number of potentially interesting structural biology projects.
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Lecturer: Dr Edward Sturrock (Division of Medical Biochemistry) will present lectures on the post genome challenge showing how our increasing genomic knowledge needs to be integrated with structural information and he will present seminars on drug design. Dr Sturrock is actively involved in structural biology research leading directly to the rational design of drugs and work done in his laboratory is a major motivating factor for the establishment of this programme.
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Lecturer: Dr Dirk Lang (Department of Human Biology) will introduce students to the structural biology of the cell, will oversee the development of a computer-based module on the structural aspects of cell biology, and will oversee all cell biology aspects of the programme.
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Lecturer: Dr Brandon Weber (Electron Microscope Unit) has a background in malaria parasite cell biology and immunocytochemistry. He is responsible for protein expression and purification, and assisting with electron microscopy sample preparation and viewing.
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Lecturer: Dr Liz van der Merwe (Department of Human Biology)
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: Mrs Michelle Kuttel (Department of Computer Science)
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University of the Western Cape
Deputy Programme Co-ordinator: Dr David Pugh (Department of Biotechnology) has a background in Applied Mathematics and Physics, and has experience of determining protein structures using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Dr Pugh is the leader of the Structural Biology Group at UWC. He will also co-ordinate the NMR component of the Masters Programme in Structural Biology, as well as contribute lectures on mathematical techniques and NMR spectroscopy.
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Senior Lecturer: Dr Muhammed Sayed (Department of Biotechnology) is a protein crystallographer who completed his post-doctoral studies under Professor Tom Blundell at Cambridge University. He will supervise the web-courses in protein structure and protein crystallography. His goal is to develop protein crystallography as a practical discipline.
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Lecturer: Prof Jasper Rees (Department of Biotechnology) is engaged in research on the identification and characterization of novel genes implicated in human cancers and the development of drug targets as anti-cancer therapies. Prof Rees has played the determining role in the establishment of both SANBI and the emphasis on structural biology at UWC. He will present lectures on structural bioinformatics and present workshops and seminars for the structural biology Masters students.
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University of Stellenbosch Staff
The University of Stellenbosch has provided Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy facilities to the course participants. The Initiative will install a third channel and a 3-channel probe to the existing 600-MHz NMR spectrometer. This will enable simultaneous measurements of 1H, 13C and 15N resonances. The program participants will benefit from a 20% usage of the updated equipment.
The key staff involved were Professor Klaus Koch and Ms Jean MacKenzie.
