Author Archives: Lonnie

Hard work pays off, as demonstrated by Relebohile Matobole (MSc student in IMBM) who walked off with a poster prize at the UWC Science faculty research open day held on Tuesday 28 October 2014. His work showed how microbes isolated … Continue reading →

Victoria Ontong won the prize for the best third year student at UWC Biotechnology. She won a cash prize and trophy presented by Merck representative, Tamara Fedderke. Congrats!

On the 12th of June 2014 the Soccer World Cup kicked off and IMBM was in a celebratory mood ! We took the opportunity to get all the lab members together for a kick-off party on the 13th with Nacho’s, … Continue reading →

IMBM is now the proud host of a Q-Pix 2 colony picking robot, named Pixie. A conversation between Assoc. Prof. Marla Tuffin and Prof Esta van Heerden at UFS (Grant holder for the Q-Pix 2), asking if IMBM could use … Continue reading →

Professor Marcel Jaspars and Dr. Rainer Ebel from the Marine Biodiscovery Centre, University of Aberdeen presented their work in discovery of secondary metabolites from marine and extremophilic sources. The natural chemical diversity from unexplored environments is being used to combat … Continue reading →

“Antibiotic abyss: The extreme quest for new medicines” This is the title of the recently (27 Jan 2014) published New Scientist article showcasing the PharmaSea project which aims to explore extreme marine habitats to discover novel antibiotics. IMBM is a … Continue reading →

The South African Society for Microbiologist (SASM) held their biannual conference this year in Bela Bela, Limpopo, hosted by the University of Witwatersrand. IMBM joined the rest of the South African microbiology community for three days of presentations and posters … Continue reading →

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Deep in the cold waters of the world’s oceans lurk marine organisms which could hold the key to one of the biggest challenges of modern medicine – resistance to antibiotics. The widespread use and misuse of antibiotics is leading to … Continue reading →

Read Gerda du Plessis’s article on her expedition to the Southern Ocean and microbes from the ocean  in the latest issue of Quest Magazine on page 23.