MRC PhD students

Feziwe Mpondo is an Msc MRC Intern student based at the South African National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI) at the University of the Western Cape and is working on functional annotation of pathogens, namely, Vibrio cholera that causes cholera in humans and Tsetse fly, a vector for a pathogen which causes a sleeping sickness known as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT).  

Genome sequencing projects have generated large amounts of genomic data at a markedly increasing rate. The key challenge for high-throughput biology is to realize the value of the data, by identifying proteins encoded by the genomes and determining their function (genomic knowledge). Gaining genomic knowledge of micro organisms especially pathogens is important, in that it provides insight on how the pathogen and host interact.  Both cholera and African sleeping sickness have a public health impact in sub-Saharan Africa. Sleeping sickness is already at epidemic proportions, as current estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that there are approximately 500 000 - 600 000 cases of HAT and 50 000 of the cases result to death daily. Compared to reports from 1999; the cases show no sign of decline. A few African countries have been hit harder than others, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Southern Sudan. Trypasomiasis is also an agricultural issue; because it causes fatal disease to livestock and therefore restricts agricultural development and nutritional resources in sub Saharan Africa.
Since the 1900s, cholera has reached epidemic levels in different regions of Africa. Most recently, in 2003-2004 there were cases of cholera reported from Mali, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa.

This project seeks to do functional analysis on Vibrio cholera and trypanosome vector (tsetse fly), using Bioinformatics tools and thus contributing to a better understanding of these systems and the processes of infection in order to interfere with the disease (or epidemics).

Supervisor: Prof Winston Hide