Research focus:

Environmental monitoring of drugs of emerging concern from various sources; elucidation of neurodegenerative disease mechanisms and development of targeted therapeutic strategies to prevent or retard the development of neurodegenerative diseases.

Biography:

Dr Van Onselen obtained her BSc (Microbiology and Chemistry), BScHons (Microbiology), MSc (Microbiology)ꟷcum laude, and PhD (Microbiology) from the Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha, South Africa. During her postgraduate studies, she received numerous awards for her research including the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science Bronze Medal, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Vice-Chancellor’s Award for the best research graduate, and the Rupert Family Trust Award. Her PhD research was focused on elucidating the mechanisms of toxicity of the cyanobacterial neurotoxin β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA), which has been implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She also identified various targeted prophylactic treatments that attenuated the neuropathologies of BMAA by up to 100%. She currently works as a Postdoctoral Researcher under the supervision of Dr Pieter Venter with a research focus on environmental monitoring of drugs of emerging concern in various sources. Dr Van Onselen has served as a reviewer for international peer-reviewed journals and has supervised numerous honour’s and master’s research students.