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The Chief Executive Officer of the Cancer Association of
South Africa awarded the AG Oettlé Memorial Silver Medal to Prof Annie
Joubert from the Department of Physiology, Prof Peter Hesseling
(University of Stellenbosch and Tygerberg Children’s Hospital) and Dr
Blair (National Council against smoking) at a function held on 22
September 2011 in Bedfordview. The medal is awarded to a South African
cancer researcher who contributed significantly to the fight against
cancer in South Africa. The medal is named in memory of Dr Alfred
George Oettlé, a cancer-research pioneer, who died in 1967 at the age
of 47.
Prof Joubert was born in Riversdale in the Western Cape.
After completing her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Pretoria
in 1998, Annie was appointed as senior technical assistant in the
Department of Physiology under the leadership of the Head, Prof Van
Papendorp, and in the laboratory of Prof Seegers where she embarked on
a journey in cancer research. She is currently a full professor at the
Department of Physiology and is recognised for her research on the in
silico analysis, synthesis and in vitro evaluation of novel anticancer
agents.
During 2008, Prof Joubert's research group collaborated
with Prof Fourie Joubert of the ACGT- Bioinformatics and Computational
Biology Unit of the University of Pretoria for the in silico-design of
novel, potential anticancer compounds. André Stander, one of Prof
Joubert's PhD students, accomplished this objective by computer
modelling of three-dimensional structures. Promising anticancer
compounds were subsequently synthesised by Ithemba Pharmaceuticals
(PTY) Ltd (Modderfontein, Gauteng). In vitro studies are currently
being conducted to elucidate each compound’s signal transduction
mechanism and to confirm their potential antitumor activity in vitro.
National and international collaboration (University of
Florida, Miami, USA, the Bioinformatics and Computational Unit,
Department of Chemistry (University of Pretoria), the University of the
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and the CEA in Grenoble, France) forms an
integral part Prof Joubert's research team together with her dedicated
postgraduate students and colleagues, namely BA Stander, S Marais, MH
Visagie, TV Mqoco, X Stander, AE Theron, CJJ Vorster, S Nkandeu and E
Wolmarans.
Financial support was given through grants awarded by
the Cancer Association of South Africa, the Research Committee of the
School of Medicine, the Medical Research Council of South Africa, the
National Research Foundation and the Struwig-Germeshuysen Cancer
Research Trust of South Africa. A special thanks is given to CANSA who
supported Prof Joubert's research on antimitotic agents for the past 10
years.
For more information, contact fourie.joubert@up.ac.za.
Story: Prof Fourie Joubert (UP newsroom,
Novenber 2011)
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Mrs J Van Rensburg, Dr Blair, Prof Hesseling, Prof Joubert and Dr Albrecht (from left to right)
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