Biography

Colyn Grobler is a masters student in the Biosurveillance and Ecology of Emerging Zoonoses group in the Centre for Viral Zoonoses, Department of Medical Virology, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria. He completed his undergraduate studies (BSc microbiology and genetics) in 2016 at the University of Pretoria before joining Professor Wanda Markotter’ research group for his BSc Honours and current MSc degrees in medical virology, mainly working on rabies and rabies-related viruses. He is currently investigating rabies-related viruses in insectivorous bat species in South Africa

Discipline/s

Lyssavirus molecular surveillance and assay optimization

Next generation sequencing

Cell culture growth and maintenance

Bat capturing and sampling fieldwork

Research description:

Lyssaviruses are bullet shaped, negative sense RNA viruses that can cause the disease known as rabies. Several lyssaviruses have been isolated exclusively from the African continent and have caused the death of multiple humans. The overall public health burden of lyssaviruses is however underestimated due to several of these viruses occurring in developing countries where surveillance and diagnosis are limited, resulting in an inaccurate overall representation of the actual impact. The research focuses on the surveillance of rabies and rabies-related viruses in African bat species. This involves the diagnostic surveillance, study of disease ecology and isolation of known and novel lyssavirus species identified in south African bat species. Research also includes regular bat capturing and sampling fieldwork in South Africa.  

Orchid ID

Research gate