Both from the Biomedical Research and Innovation Platform (BRIP), Profs Johan Louw, Director and Christo Muller, a Chief Specialist Scientist have been awarded: “Top Intellectual Property Creators” by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO).
The announcement was made recently at a gala banquet in Pretoria, where the DST Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane handed over forty awards to scientists and researchers from public funded research institutions across South Africa. The awards initiative follows the decision by both the DST and NIPMO to acknowledge the most prolific inventors in each institution and award them all with a certificate of acknowledgement as one of the incentives.
As top inventors at the SAMRC, the duo was awarded for their passion in ensuring that their research translates into new innovations that can benefit the people of South Africa. The awards carry with them a purse of R605 000 to be used for the furtherance of one or more of the technologies under development by the inventors.
Dr Michelle Mulder, Senior Programme Manager in the Grants, Innovation and Product Development Division and Head of the SAMRC’s Technology Transfer Office, says they were excited to nominate both Profs Louw and Muller as the SAMRC’s most outstanding inventors.
“We are pleased to see their significant contributions to innovation being acknowledged and applauded by the DST and NIPMO. We look forward to continued engagement with the inventors to drive their inventions towards clinical studies and, ultimately, implementation to address the burden of non-communicable diseases in South Africa,” she said.
More about Profs Louw and Muller
Prof Johan Louw is the Director of the SAMRC’s Biomedical Research and Innovation Platform (BRIP). He has been involved in diabetes research for 30 years and spesialises on disease prevention, the development of new therapeutics from plants, as well as foetal programming. Most recent projects involved identifying sub cellular markers for early detection of diabetes, and the isolation of novel compounds with the potential of protecting pancreatic beta cells. Prof Louw research focus on diabetes (prevention, diagnosis and treatment), beta cell protection, obesity, therapeutics derived from plants, 3D cell culture, commercialisation, partnerships and collaboration with industry. He has 4 International patents (USA and Europe) for the prevention of diabetes and has authored and co-authored 102 peer–reviewed articles and four book chapters
Prof Christo Muller is currently the Chief Specialist Scientist at BRIP and his research focuses on the potential role of phenolic compounds in the prevention and treatment of metabolic conditions such as insulin resistance, gut microbiota and dysbiosis, obesity and type 2 diabetes. He is also involved with a proteomics study to identify early markers for type 2 diabetes. He has 2 International patents (USA & Europe) for the prevention of diabetes and has authored and co-authored 84 peer–reviewed articles and two book chapters. He has graduated 12 M.Sc., 3 Ph.D. post-graduate students and supervised 2 post-doctoral research fellows.