I have been in Prof Ed Rybicki’s group since February 2000 initially as a postdoctoral fellow and currently as a Research Officer. My research interests lie mainly in the expression of recombinant proteins in plants and in particular, vaccines for humans and animals which provide a cheaper alternative to industrially-produced vaccines. I have worked on the production of HIV-1 Gag virus-like particles (VLPs) in plants with a view to using these as an HIV-1 vaccine candidate as well as the production of Bluetongue virus (BTV) particles for a potential vaccine. I am currently also working on a Rift Valley Fever Virus vaccine. Work includes the expression of VLPs in Nicotiana benthamiana and preliminary testing of their ability to stimulate an immune response in mice. Since 2000, 8 honours students, 3 MSc students and one PhD student have graduated under my co-supervision and I am currently co-supervising 2 MSc students and 3 PhD students.

I grew up in Namibia and studied in South Africa at the University of Cape Town in Cape Town from 1980 - 1986. I did my undergraduate studies in Microbiology and Biochemistry and my PhD on hake population genetics while working for Sea Fisheries in Cape Town. My post-doctoral years I spent at medical school at UCT working on gonadotropin releasing hormone. In 2000 I started to work in Prof Rybicki’s group in a then very new and novel field of expression of viral proteins in plants.
We are specifically working on production of vaccine candidates against Human papillomavirus (HPV) and development of second generation vaccines that will be cheaper by production in plants and will protect against more than one type of HPV. HPV is the cause of cervical cancer the second most prevalent cancer in women in developing countries.
Other diseases that we are working on are: rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhoea in children; Beak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV) which causes Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) in all psittacine birds (parrots); and Avian influenza.
The research that I have been involved in over the last eleven years has come a long way from just being an idea to produce viral proteins in plants to becoming a reality with proteins being expressed in high enough levels to make it feasible to produce them as vaccines.

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

Dr Dionne Shepherd Research Officer

I have worked on Maize streak virus (MSV) in Prof Rybicki’s lab since 1997, first for an MSc which was upgraded to PhD (graduated 2003), then as a postdoctoral fellow and currently as a Research Officer. MSV causes the worst viral disease of maize in Africa, resulting in yield losses in individual farmers’ fields of up to 100% in epidemic years. My PhD and post-PhD work combined research on MSV molecular biology with plant transformation techniques to produce the world’s first genetically modified (GM) MSV-resistant maize and the first all-African produced GM crop plant.
Together with Drs Darren Martin (UCT), Arvind Varsani (formerly of UCT, now at University of Canterbury) and our students I also investigate MSV diversity throughout Africa. Driven mainly by Arvind Varsani, in just over two years this project has culminated in the cloning and sequencing of over 500 virus genomes from samples collected all over Africa, with the discovery of new virus species and strains. In addition, we are analysing the role of recombination in the evolution of MSV. This, in addition to the diversity studies, is important in order to better understand the virus genotypes our MSV-resistant maize will be confronted with in different regions of Africa, as well as the potential of resistance-breaking variants emerging through recombination.
I have co-supervised one PhD student through to graduation (graduated December 2008) as well as exchange students from Kenya and Germany. Currently I co-supervise two PhD students.
In 2008 I was named “Best Emerging Young Scientist” at the Department of Science and Technology’s annual “Women in Science Awards”.

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

Marion Bezuidenhout Research assistant

Responsible for plant tissue culture, maintenance of maize and Xerophyta for research purposes. This entails selection and transfer of plant calli to fresh media every 14-16 days. For this purpose complex media had to be prepared with precision and accuracy and needs sterile apparatus.

• Initiate callus from plants
• Bombard calli or cell cultures with Biolistics Particle gun.
• Pick and bulk resistant (Biolaphos) callus events.
• Regenerate resistant calli to plantslets harden off in plant room or Conviron
• Confirm transformation
• Grow transformed plantslets up to mature plants for seed collection.
• Agrobacterium infection of Maize calli.

Responsible for plant rooms and ensuring correct enviroment for the plant research group.
Maintaining temperatures, humidity and day and night cycles for optimum performance and growth of all different plants involved in research. Inspecting plants for pests, fertilisation, re-potting and watering of plants
Research laboratory technical support

• DNA extractions
• PCR's
• Run electrophoresis gels
• Transformations
• Germinating maize seeds for Agrobacterium infection (inject seedlings)
• Symptom analysis

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

Francisco Lakay Scientific Officer

I grew up in a very rural town called Greyton and studied at the University of Stellenbosch,
This is my final year PhD Microbiology at Stellies - on discovering xylanases from metagenomic DNA libraries.

At UCT: Scientific Officer - MSV Group, doing most of the Molecular Biology: DNA isolations, PCR, etc.

I am currently living in Stellenbosch.
Hobbies include tennis, fishing, mountaineering and general outdoors, a bit of chess.
Married with 1 daughter, who is 5 years old.

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

Sandiswa Mbwena Scientific Officer/PhD student

I am a Biotechnologist specializing in Plant Biotechnology. My Bsc Biotechnology degree was obtained at the University of the Western Cape in 2005. My post graduate studies (BSc Hons and MSc in Wine biotechnology) were completed at Stellenbosch University. My MSc was on the analysis of possible fungal resistance phenotype in transgenic tobacco plants over-expressing the native cinnamyl alcohol dehydrogenase gene. The key study area was Grapevine biotechnology focusing on disease resistance.
Since 2008 I have been working as a Scientific Officer in the plant based vaccine group. My project was on the development of an avian influenza virus (H5N1) vaccine using plants and insect cell expression system. Now am have enrolled for a PhD on development of rift valley fever virus vaccine.

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

Alta Hattingh PhD student

I did my B.Sc Hons (Biochemistry) at the University of the Free State in 2006.
In 2007 I started my M.Sc (also at UFS) in Biotechnology with the Veterinary Biotechnology research group, I did my research on Beak and feather disease virus.
I completed my M.Sc end of 2008 and at present I'm doing a Ph.D on the development of a plant produced vaccine against Bluetongue virus serotype 8.

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

Aderito Monjane PhD student

I joined the Maize Streak Virus group as a research assistant and subsequently started a PhD project.

I am involved in the study of MSV diversity throughout the African continent. My interest is in the phylogeography of MSV, so I routinely collect and sequence MSV, and analyze the recombination patterns evident in the sequences so as to ascertain the source of the recombinant regions. I also analyze the virulence of various recombinant haplotypes by testing the viruses against different maize hybrids. Another part of my project involves the study of MSV evolution, recombination, and the influence of recombination events in the improvement of the viruses. To this effect I have cloned or synthetically made recombinant viruses based on diverged wild-type viruses that infect maize and grasses. These viruses are allowed to recombine, thereby possibly highlighting the possible polymorphisms required to infect maize host plants, polymorphism involved in intra- or inter- genomic interactions, and regions of the genome that are sufficiently modular, or not, to allow various wild-type MSV recombinants to infect maize and grasses successfully.

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

Rizwan Ali Syed PhD student

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

Guy Regnard PhD student

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

Mark Whitehead PhD student

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

David Levi Rutendo Mutepfa MSc student

I was born in Zimbabwe and raised in Botswana. I did my undergraduate degree in the department of Molecular and Cell Biology – UCT. In my honours year I worked on the expression of a Rotavirus capsid protein – VP6, in tobacco plant leaves. I am currently studying towards a Master’s degree, researching on the expression of all Rotavirus capsid proteins – VP2, VP6, VP7 and VP4 in tobacco plant leaves and E.coli cells. Results from this study will hopefully aid towards the development of a sub-Saharan subunit vaccine against Rotavirus which causes severe-acute diarrhoea and ultimately death, especially in infants.

BACK TO ED RYBICKI'S PAGE

Cathy Pineo MSc student

Born in Namibia, I headed south from the dunes and sunshine to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Biochemistry at Rhodes University in Grahamstown and my Honours degree in Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of Cape Town (UCT). I’m currently doing my M.Sc with Prof. Ed Rybicki and Dr Inga Hitzeroth, and I am specifically focusing on the expression of high-risk type 16 Human Papillomavirus (HPV-16) L1 chimaeras in tobacco plants and the immunogenic characterisation of these proteins. High-risk HPV types cause cervical cancer, the second most common cancer in women worldwide. Current HPV vaccines are highly type-specific and expensive, thus have limited application in developing countries. As a result, plant-expressed HPV chimaeras may be a potential broad-spectrum, low-cost HPV vaccine candidate and is of significant interest for future vaccine development. Aside from combating cancer, I love the outdoors, being enticed into a good story (whether in a book or movie) and I have been known to dabble in various creative writing projects.