Congratulations to Professor Trevor Nyakudya, an Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, who, together with collaborators from the University of Johannesburg and North West University, recently won the 2022 Gauteng Accelerator Programme (GAP) award under the Bioscience category. 

With a novel concept that involves the extraction and use of a plant-based phytoconstituent to treat diabetes, Prof Nyakudya and collaborators received a cash prize and seed funding for further development of the innovation. They will also receive business support services and mentorship as part of the incubation program by the GAP Innovation Hub. The GAP Biosciences category forms part of The Innovation Hub Management Company (TIHMC) 's annual Innovation Competition, which aims to close the gap between scientific research and commercialisation. The competition is a Gauteng Innovation and Knowledge Economy Strategy project, which seeks to use competitions to find innovations that would improve Gauteng's competitiveness.

The prestigious GAP Innovation Competition was hosted by The Innovation Hub (TIH) in partnership with Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), and Emory University's Goizueta Business School. 

Professor Nyakudya is a pre-clinical and basic medical science researcher and has actively contributed to addressing society's need for new knowledge through his active involvement in research-linked activities such as conducting and producing nationally and internationally competitive research. His primary research focuses on using various animal models to investigate the potential therapeutic efficacy of phytomedicines and their constituent phytochemicals in the management of metabolic disorders such as diabetes.