Office:  7-7 Agricultural Sciences Building
Tel: 012-420-2479
E-mail: lynmarie.birkholtz [at] up.ac.za
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Malaria Parasite Molecular Laboratory
DST/NRF South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Sustainable Malaria Control
UP ISMC

Profile

Lyn-Marie Birkholtz is a full professor in Biochemistry and director of a Tier 1 DST/NRF South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Sustainable Malaria Control. She leads the Parasite Cluster within the UP Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control. She is an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa. She is trained as Geneticist and Biochemist and received her PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Pretoria, followed by postdoctoral fellowships in Germany and the USA. Prof Birkholtz is a NRF B2-rated scientist and was recognised by UP recognised as Exceptional Young Researcher in 2010 and 2013, and as Exceptional Academic Achiever for 2019-2021. She received the Vice Chancellor’s Exceptional Supervisor Award in 2018 and the NSTF Science Communication Award in 2018.

Current research interests

Broad areas: Infectious diseases, parasitology, therapeutics, medicinal biochemistry

Specifics: As principal investigator of the Malaria Parasitology Molecular Laboratory (M2PL), I have a keen interest in the fundamental processes driving parasitism and how this sustains global health challenges, of which malaria is still arguably devastating. However, I feel a social responsibility to directly translate my research outcomes into meaningful and tangible health innovations, particularly to discover new antimalarial drugs. As such, I find it fascinating and rewarding to work at the interface between parasite biology and drug discovery and use new biological insights as a catalyst for drug discovery. However, I cannot do so without an in-depth understanding of the essential processes driving survival and pathogenesis of malaria parasites. This is a substantial research challenge, and one I approach from a systems level. I therefore generate global descriptors of asexual parasite proliferation and gametocyte differentiation, to tease apart the molecular regulators involved and provide meaningful information on essential druggable processes. I particularly focus on the pathogenic processes driving proliferation and differentiation of malaria parasites to deliver drugs able to target both these. In line with international endeavours focused on achieving malaria elimination, my research uses high-content biological information of malaria parasites to support sustained discovery of malaria control chemotherapies to contribute to the global ‘Malaria Eradication Agenda’. My research programme is therefore built on three integrated pillars: 1) understanding parasite biology associated with pathogenesis (proliferation and differentiation), 2) antimalarial drug discovery for malaria elimination endeavours and 3) understanding host-parasite interactions that drive sustained malaria transmission.

I am passionate about training of the next generation of young scientist in the cutting edge technologies used in our programme. To date, 19 PhD & 28 MSc has been completed under my (co)-supervision, with several graduates successfully appointed in international fellowships.