Dr Candice Hendricks has joined the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine (ICMM) as part of the haematopoietic stem cell research team.

Dr Hendricks completed her paediatric training in 2014 and was awarded a Life healthcare scholarship in 2015 to train in paediatric haematology. During her training, she became increasingly interested in improving outcomes in children with high-risk haematological malignancies. This ignited her passion for stem cell transplantation and increasing the availability of stem cell treatments. One such way could be to establish a public umbilical cord stem cell bank.

Candice was recently awarded the prestigious Professor Bongani Mayosi Netcare Clinical scholarship, allowing her to pursue a full-time PhD focusing on using umbilical cord blood stem cells in transplantation. She will conduct her research under the leadership of Professor Michael Pepper (ICMM, Department of Medical Immunology, UP).

Dr Hendricks is excited at the prospect of becoming a clinician-scientist and hopes to encourage others to pursue careers in clinical research. “It is my hope that a public umbilical cord blood bank be initiated in South Africa, therefore, allowing more children access to life-saving transplants.” shared Dr Hendricks.