Page 126 - SAMRC Annual Report 2023-24

Nozipho Mlotshwa using a ultracentrifuge to Nyasha Gorogodo carrying out mRNA
purify viral particles on vaccine development. analysis using a fragment analyser.

Assoc. Prof Betty Maepa, Dr Kristie Bloom and In addition, presentations have been made at
Dr Kubendran Naidoo. Currently, the unit is involved various conferences attended by the lay public. Also,
in the training of four postdoctoral fellows, four learners from various schools have been hosted in
PhD candidates and seven MSc students. the unit to carry out 'job shadowing' exercises.

A focus is on addressing problems that concern As indicated above, with the BRILLIANT project
South Africans and residents of sub-Saharan Africa. specialists in community engagement have been
Our team regularly gives input to various media brought into the consortium to facilitate broad
outlets (see below) to engage with communities. acceptance of modern mRNA vaccine technologies.
In certain cases, such as with the BRILLIANT HIV
mRNA vaccine development project, specialists in In celebration of 30 years of
community engagement are involved. Our team democracy in South Africa
recognises community engagement as being vital
to enhancing the acceptance of new vaccines and It is vitally important that South African scientists
therapies. participate fully in tackling health problems that face
the country, and experiences from the COVID-19
Science for creating a pandemic reinforce this notion. To enable outbreak

healthier society preparedness, a good foundation must exist in
South Africa and other Low and Middle-Income
Numerous interviews have been given for local and Countries (LMICs) so that a rapid response can be
international news agencies during the past few implemented in the event of a serious pandemic
years. These pertained mainly to advancing the emergence. Our unit has been generously
mRNA vaccination hub located in South Africa. The supported by the SAMRC and other government
news agencies included the following: eNCA, Voice funding agencies for many years during the time
of the Cape, 91.3 FM, BBC, Blumberg, Medicines of democracy. This has enabled us to build useful
patent pool, TV5 (French), The World (a national infrastructure and has been employed to build
radio programme in the United States from PRX and mRNA-, protein subunit- and adenovirus-based
GBH), Nature and Liberation (a French newspaper). vaccine capacity.

124 SAMRC ANNUAL REPOR T 2023-24