News in brief

Interview with Dr Tim Tucker
Dr Tim Tucker, former director of the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI), was interviewed by a team from US-based video production company Persistent Productions about HIV/ AIDS and vaccine development in South Africa. The team was in South Africa to do a programme on AIDS in South Africa and also visited the vaccine clinical trial site at the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto as well as many other organisations working in HIV/ AIDS in South Africa.

Top 100 Technology award
Dr Moretlo Molefi (director of the Telemedicine Lead Programme) and Ms Kusile Mtunzi-Hairwadzi, (executive manager of the Corporate Communication and Stakeholder Relations Directorate) is congratulated by Minister of Science & Technology Mr Mosibudi Mangena after the MRC won the Technology Top 100 Award for Research & Development for a large enterprise.

The MRC in Cape Town recently played host to a group of postgraduate chemistry students who wanted to learn more about the science being done here. The students, from the University of the Western Cape, Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town, visited PROMEC, the Nutritional Intervention Research Unit, the Diabetes Research Group, and Indigenous Knowledge Systems.

Sharing HR expertise with a broader audience
The establishment of the MRC Human Capital Consultancy is a new direction being explored by the Medical Research Council of South Africa's Human Resources Directorate. It provides the staff of the directorate with the scope to be involved in providing HR-related consultancy services to external clients. The areas of service offered include strategic management, transformation, diversity management, change management, performance management, employment equity and skills interventions, and industrial relations. It was brought into being to broaden the directorate's visibility in the science sector and other sectors, and to provide job enrichment to the staff in the directorate. Through its growth, the HR Directorate will also be able to broaden its services internally, for example by facilitating strategic team-building workshops and customer service workshops. This initiative supports the MRC's commercialisation strategy, which is part of its overall transformation strategy. The MRC Human Captial Consultancy has been granted permission to run CARAS (Centre for Anti-Racism and Anti-Sexism Trust) diversity interventions, including the renowned 'Understanding Racism & Sexism and Developing Good Practice' workshop. The consultancy will be managed by Mr Achmat Noor, who will be supported by all the functional experts within the HR Directorate. Active marketing of the MRC Human Capital Consultancy will commence in January 2005.

Pregnancy Hypertension Research Unit waves goodbye
At the end of 2004, the MRC's Pregnancy Hypertension Research Unit will be closing down, after some 13 years of working at the cutting edge of science. (Half funding during 2005 will ensure that all remaining research projects are phased out.) Prof Jack Moodley, director of the unit (who also served two terms as an MRC Board member), took some time to reflect on the past.

What did it mean to your research and your team to be an MRC unit? I believe that the linkages with other research units and the fact that the MRC provided stability when it came to funding allowed the team to become nationally and internationally recognized. More importantly, it helped aid the development of research topics that are relevant to South Africa. Having had three terms has allowed the unit to become internationally recognized in the field of eclampsia.

What was the highlight of your term as unit? Being involved in two of the largest ever randomized clinical trials in women's health: the Eclampsia Trial Collaborative Group and the Magpie Trial Collaborative Group. The first trial investigated which anticonvulsant to use for women with eclampsia (a toxic condition characterized by convulsions and possibly coma during or immediately after pregnancy), while the second trial asked whether women with pre-eclampsia, and their babies, benefited from magnesium sulphate. (Pre-eclampsia is a condition that can lead to eclampsia if left untreated.) Both the trials were published in the prestigious international medical journal The Lancet. The unit played a major role in these important studies that helped to shape clinical practice. The studies have made magnesium sulphate the anticonvulsant of choice for the management and prevention of convulsions associated with hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.

What is your advice to directors of other units? Build links with other directors and be involved with the countries on our borders. This will help improve relevant research for the continent.

MRC-sponsored lectures for World AIDS day
The MRC's Office of International Affairs sponsored lectures by eminent scientists Prof Stefan Kaufmann (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Department of Immunology, Berlin) and Prof Andrew McMichael (Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford).

These lectures took place at the MRC on 1 December 2004, World AIDS Day, and were attended by participants in the Wellcome Trust/ EMBO workshop on HIV/ AIDS and TB, and researchers from Cape-based institutions.

Prof McMichael's lecture was entitled 'The elusive AIDS vaccine' and Prof Kaufmann's lecture was entitled 'Learning from natural immunity against tuberculosis for rational vaccine design'.

Researchers get 'journo savvy' at media workshop
Two expert Australian trainers, Toss Gasciogne en Jenni Metcalfe, were at the MRC in Cape Town recently to help researchers take charge of their interactions with the media.

The workshop had a strong practical component, and several South African journalists were on hand to interview - and give feedback to - the researchers attending the workshop.

Judging from the comments of the researcers, the workshop was a huge success. Ms Taryn Young of the South African Cochrane Centre said that the aim of MRC scientists is to improve the health of individuals and thus the nation. 'However, effective communication of our work is often neglected. This workshop really helped me to start focusing on these issues,' she said.

Ms Nobuhle Mkhize (Community Liaison Officer of the MRC's HIV Vaccine Research Unit) reckons that this workshop should be made available to as many South African scientists as possible. 'Science is universal, and there is no place here in South Africa where it does not happen,' were her words.

The workshop was sponsored by the Public Understanding of Biotechnology initiative (PUB) and coordinated by Ms Elmien Wolvaardt of the MRC's Corporate Communication and Stakeholder Relations Directorate.

South African researcher wins Cochrane prize
Prof George Swingler, an honorary staff member of the South African Cochrane Centre, has been awarded the Kenneth Warren Prize at the 12th Cochrane Colloquium in Ottawa, Canada.

Prof George Swingler. Behind him is a painting by one
of the young patients in the Red Cross Children's Hospital.

The Kenneth Warren Prize is awarded annually to the principal author of whichever Cochrane systematic review is judged to be both of high methodological quality and relevant to health problems in developing countries. The review has to be published electronically in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and authored by a national living in a developing country.

Prof Swingler's review, called Conjugate vaccines for preventing Haemophilus influenzae type B infections, found that the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine can prevent children becoming very ill from this disease. It also found that the vaccine, despite its high price, is indeed cost-effective.

Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) usually affects children under the age of five. It can cause life-threatening meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain) or pneumonia (serious lung infection). Hib vaccine has been introduced in developed countries, but the high cost of the vaccine has prevented it being introduced into routine childhood immunisation schedules in developing countries.

George Swingler, Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health, is based at the School of Child and Adolescent Health, University of Cape Town, and Red Cross Children's Hospital. His two co-authors were Ms Desiree Michaels and Prof Greg Hussey.

The MRC's AIDS Intervention Workplace Programme
History was made at the MRC recently when the organisation launched its AIDS Intervention Workplace Programme. The event coincided with World AIDS Day (1 December) and took place simultaneously at all the MRC sites (Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, Hlabisa, and Umtata). Staff members agree that it was a very dignified and touching experience. MRC Interim President, Prof William Pick, (who has since retired) had a voluntary test to determine his HIV status. The staff was also addressed by an HIV-positive person who spoke of her experience living with the disease.

The MRC's AIDS Intervention Workplace Programme for employees offers information on HIV/ AIDS, confidential and voluntary counselling and testing, and ongoing clinical treatment and management for those infected. It is a comprehensive wellness programme aimed at assisting employees both to prevent HIV infection and to remain healthy and productive.