Dr Siphesihle Robin Nxele

Postdoctoral Fellow

Innovation Panel Discussion Chair

Dr Siphesihle Robin Nxele is a post-doctoral researcher in the Faculty of Health Sciences. She holds a joint PhD in Chemistry awarded by Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa, and Chimie ParisTech in Paris, France. She has published her PhD work in internationally recognized peer-reviewed journals, Her passion and desire to make medical care accessible to all communities led her to her most recent research: fabricating early diagnostic electrochemical sensors for prostate cancer. She is currently working on identifying gaps in the user experience of mobile-linked point-of-care diagnostics with the aim of improving the user experience of such technologies, which will lead to sustainable integration and implementation in community-based healthcare. Although her expertise is mainly in lab-based scientific research, she has now embarked on the implementation of digitally-linked point-of-care diagnostics which she will combine with her knowledge of development to contribute to the improvement of implementation of such technologies. She has published a scoping review protocol on the user experience of mobile-linked point-of-care diagnostic technology in community-based healthcare and has submitted a full scoping review for publication.

Dr Maurine Rofhiwa Musie

Lecturer

Panelist

Dr Maurine Rofhiwa Musie is an Advanced Midwifery specialist and lecturer at the University of Pretoria. She is recognised as the youngest PhD recipient in the Nursing Department from the University of Pretoria, Republic of South Africa and by the National Research Foundation (NRF) in 2023. She obtained a Master’s degree in Advanced Midwifery and Neonatal Sciences from the same university in 2018. Apart from teaching undergraduate students, she has supervised several Masters students to completion. Dr Musie has been a role model in the profession and a recipient of several awards of excellence. She was the first African student to be awarded Cum Laude in Bachelors of Nursing Sciences in 2015. She was also a recipient of the Emergent Research Excellence Award at the University of Pretoria in 2021. She represents South Africa at the Nursing Now Global Challenge of the Burnett Trust of Nursing. Dr M Musie is currently busy with her postdoctoral fellowship which is funded by the Research Foundation Programme (RDP) aiming to develop a Midwifery educator Continuing professional development (CPD) programme targeting skilled attendance at birth, provision of emergency obstetrics and complications and newborn care in collaboration with stakeholders from The World Continuing Education Alliance and other international scholars. Ultimately, this will contribute to the country’s efforts to meet Sustainable Developmental Goal number 3.

Dr Patrick Ngassa Piotie

Public Health Specialist

Panelist

Dr Patrick Ngassa Piotie is a dedicated Public Health Specialist with over a decade of research and project management experience. Patrick is a senior programme manager at the University of Pretoria Diabetes Research Centre. His focus is non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and his interests include diabetes management in primary care and the integration of NCD services in HIV/AIDS and TB programmes. Adept in health systems strengthening and implementation science, Patrick is a strong advocate for access to quality diabetes care in developing countries. He is the Chairperson of the Diabetes Alliance. He has a medical degree and a PhD in public health.

Dr Juanita Mellet

Postdoctoral fellow 

Panelist

Dr Juanita Mellet completed her PhD in 2019 under the supervision of Prof Michael Pepper at the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine (ICMM), Department of Immunology, University of Pretoria. Her PhD involved studying various aspects of umbilical cord blood (UCB)-derived haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) and HIV. This formed the basis of her interest in the clinical application of HSPCs, particularly expansion of these cells and their use in gene therapy, both of which are at the forefront of modern medicine. She is presently a postdoctoral fellow at the ICMM, working on the neonatal encephalopathy with suspected hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (NESHIE) project. This project, with its various clinical and molecular components,has further developed and expanded her interests in  identifying unique molecular signatures in various biological systems across areas of basic and clinical research,with a specific focus on therapeutic applications.

Dr Rodney Hull

PACRI Research Manager

Panelist

Dr  Rodney Hull is currently the research manager for PACRI at the university of Pretoria. He completed his BSc (Hons) and PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand. His PhD involved studying yhe stress response of insects following exposure to DNA damaging compounds. He completed Postdoctoral fellowships at both UNISA and the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT). Before joining PACRI in 2019. In July 2022 he was appointed as the research manager for PACRI. He has been a visiting scientist at Prof Penny’s laboratory at Wits where he has co-supervised students registered in the Oncology division within the division of Internal medicine

Michael Starrk

MSc Human Physiology Student

Panelist

Michael Stark is an MSc Human Physiology student, specializing in breast cancer cell biology, metabolism, and small-molecule therapeutics. His primary research areas encompass oncology, synthetic biology, biomanufacturing, and nanotechnology. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Human and Cellular Physiology (valedictorian) and a BSc in Biochemistry and Human Physiology (cum laude). At 19 years old, he led a cancer cell biology research project through the Tuks Undergraduate Research Forum (TURF), later becoming the student chair of TURF. He was the youngest finalist at the 2021 Falling Walls Lab in Berlin for his startup, Immunofeed (Pty) Ltd. He was further invited to serve on the interdisciplinary jury at the 2022 Falling Walls Lab Pretoria by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). He pursued a bioengineering internship at Harvard Medical School's Centre for Nanomedicine, leading a biomaterials and non-invasive diagnostic device project. Michael's active engagement in the Boston biotech community led to him presenting two biotech startup projects at MIT and the Harvard Biotech Club (HBC). In addition, he was selected by the HBC to participate in the Harvard Business School Research Commercialization Program. Finally, this year, he received the Rising Star Award from the International Cell Death Society, recognizing his contributions as an early-career cell biology researcher.