SASBi Council:
President
Prof Ozlem Tastan Bishop
o.tastanbishop at ru.ac.za
Ozlem received her BSc degree in Physics from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. Then she moved to the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the same University for her MSc degree. She obtained her PhD from Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics and Free University, Berlin, Germany in 2003. She was co-founder and the first President of the student association of Max-Planck Institute in Berlin. While doing her PhD, Ozlem became interested in structural biology, and during her postdoctoral positions (Texas University, UWC and UP) she gained experience in structural bioinformatics as well as structural biology. In October 2009, Ozlem took up a senior lecturer position at Rhodes University, with the responsibility to develop postgraduate studies in bioinformatics at the University. She established Rhodes University Bioinformatics research group (RUBi) in 2010, and started one-year MSc programme in bioinformatics by coursework and research thesis in 2011. Ozlem’s broad research interest is comparative genomics and structural bioinformatics.
Prof Ozlem Tastan Bishop
o.tastanbishop at ru.ac.za
Ozlem received her BSc degree in Physics from Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey. Then she moved to the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at the same University for her MSc degree. She obtained her PhD from Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics and Free University, Berlin, Germany in 2003. She was co-founder and the first President of the student association of Max-Planck Institute in Berlin. While doing her PhD, Ozlem became interested in structural biology, and during her postdoctoral positions (Texas University, UWC and UP) she gained experience in structural bioinformatics as well as structural biology. In October 2009, Ozlem took up a senior lecturer position at Rhodes University, with the responsibility to develop postgraduate studies in bioinformatics at the University. She established Rhodes University Bioinformatics research group (RUBi) in 2010, and started one-year MSc programme in bioinformatics by coursework and research thesis in 2011. Ozlem’s broad research interest is comparative genomics and structural bioinformatics.
Vice President
Alan Christoffels
[email protected]
Alan is the director of the South African National Bioinformatics Institute and director of the Medical Research Council Bioinformatics Capacity Development Research Unit. In 2009 he received the Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation Research Chair in Bioinformatics and Health Genomics. His bioinformatics laboratory focuses on host-pathogen interactions where they are developing high throughput genomics methods including next generation sequencing data analysis approaches to study communicable diseases such as tuberculosis,malaria and sleeping sickness. This work includes analyzing illumina and PacBio sequencing data for multiple Mycobacterial strains to answer questions about virulence and the application of machine learning tools to identify interaction networks. During the past three years, they have expanded their methods in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa to analyze the first genome sequence for the fungal pathogen, Venturia inaequalis. As of 2009 he has coordinatored genomics training on the African continent for the WHO-tropical disease research programme – the Glossina Functional Genomics Network (GFGN) as part of the International Glossina Genome Initiative. In 2010 he was elected to be part of an international working group developing policy guidelines for the National Institutes of Health “Human, Heredity and Health in Africa” Programme. In 2011, the South African Genetics community established the Southern African Human Genome Programme (SAHGP) of which he is one of the core leadership team members. In March 2012 they were able to leverage funds from the Department of Science and Technology to initiate the sequencing of 25 Southern African human genomes as part of the activities scheduled for 2012. His group will be providing bioinformatics research support to the SAHGP through resources committed in his Research Chair programme and training support to the genetics community. More recently, his group was funded through an NIH grant to support the development of a Biobank for Africa at Tygerberg Hospital – the other biobank will be hosted in Abuja, Nigeria.
Alan Christoffels
[email protected]
Alan is the director of the South African National Bioinformatics Institute and director of the Medical Research Council Bioinformatics Capacity Development Research Unit. In 2009 he received the Department of Science and Technology/National Research Foundation Research Chair in Bioinformatics and Health Genomics. His bioinformatics laboratory focuses on host-pathogen interactions where they are developing high throughput genomics methods including next generation sequencing data analysis approaches to study communicable diseases such as tuberculosis,malaria and sleeping sickness. This work includes analyzing illumina and PacBio sequencing data for multiple Mycobacterial strains to answer questions about virulence and the application of machine learning tools to identify interaction networks. During the past three years, they have expanded their methods in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa to analyze the first genome sequence for the fungal pathogen, Venturia inaequalis. As of 2009 he has coordinatored genomics training on the African continent for the WHO-tropical disease research programme – the Glossina Functional Genomics Network (GFGN) as part of the International Glossina Genome Initiative. In 2010 he was elected to be part of an international working group developing policy guidelines for the National Institutes of Health “Human, Heredity and Health in Africa” Programme. In 2011, the South African Genetics community established the Southern African Human Genome Programme (SAHGP) of which he is one of the core leadership team members. In March 2012 they were able to leverage funds from the Department of Science and Technology to initiate the sequencing of 25 Southern African human genomes as part of the activities scheduled for 2012. His group will be providing bioinformatics research support to the SAHGP through resources committed in his Research Chair programme and training support to the genetics community. More recently, his group was funded through an NIH grant to support the development of a Biobank for Africa at Tygerberg Hospital – the other biobank will be hosted in Abuja, Nigeria.
Secretary
Nanette Coetzer
nanette.coetzer at gmail.com
Nanette obtained her undergraduate degree in B.Sc. Financial Mathematics at the University of Pretoria in 2005, whereafter she became a B.Sc. Honours and subsequently an M.Sc. graduate in the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Unit at the University of Pretoria. She registered as a PhD student at the University of Pretoria in 2010, working under supervision of Prof D.K. Berger in the Molecular Plant Pathogen Interactions research group. Her PhD project focuses on functional genomics of disease resistance in Maize. While being a post-graduate student, she also assists various molecular biologists with data analyses, using custom developed python and R scripts, galaxy pipelines, MySQL databases and other existing tools. She taught various courses at the National Bioinformatics Courses in Cape Town from 2008-2011, including Microarray Data Analysis, R programming and Introductory Statistics. Nanette’s research interests in Bioinformatics mainly include transcriptomics and genomics.
Nanette Coetzer
nanette.coetzer at gmail.com
Nanette obtained her undergraduate degree in B.Sc. Financial Mathematics at the University of Pretoria in 2005, whereafter she became a B.Sc. Honours and subsequently an M.Sc. graduate in the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Unit at the University of Pretoria. She registered as a PhD student at the University of Pretoria in 2010, working under supervision of Prof D.K. Berger in the Molecular Plant Pathogen Interactions research group. Her PhD project focuses on functional genomics of disease resistance in Maize. While being a post-graduate student, she also assists various molecular biologists with data analyses, using custom developed python and R scripts, galaxy pipelines, MySQL databases and other existing tools. She taught various courses at the National Bioinformatics Courses in Cape Town from 2008-2011, including Microarray Data Analysis, R programming and Introductory Statistics. Nanette’s research interests in Bioinformatics mainly include transcriptomics and genomics.
Public relations
Prof Nicola Mulder
nicola.mulder at uct.ac.za
Associate Professor Mulder is the Head of the Computational Biology Group at UCT. After her PhD in Medical Microbiology, she spent 8 years at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge, moving into the area of Bioinformatics. At the EBI she was a Team Leader, responsible for development of Bioinformatics tools and databases. At UCT A/Prof Mulder works in the area of bioinformatics of microbial genomics, human genetics and infectious diseases, and provides Bioinformatics services for the local researchers. Her research includes analysis of functional interaction networks in M. tuberculosis, host pathogen interactions, and visualization and analysis tools for high-throughput biology. She also has projects in human variation studies and disease associations and development of tool and resources to facilitate these. A/Prof Mulder is President of the African Society for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and is coordinating H3ABioNet, an H3Africa Bioinformatics Network including 34 insitutions in 15 countries, which aims to build capacity in Africa for analysis of data on human genetic factors related to disease.
Prof Nicola Mulder
nicola.mulder at uct.ac.za
Associate Professor Mulder is the Head of the Computational Biology Group at UCT. After her PhD in Medical Microbiology, she spent 8 years at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge, moving into the area of Bioinformatics. At the EBI she was a Team Leader, responsible for development of Bioinformatics tools and databases. At UCT A/Prof Mulder works in the area of bioinformatics of microbial genomics, human genetics and infectious diseases, and provides Bioinformatics services for the local researchers. Her research includes analysis of functional interaction networks in M. tuberculosis, host pathogen interactions, and visualization and analysis tools for high-throughput biology. She also has projects in human variation studies and disease associations and development of tool and resources to facilitate these. A/Prof Mulder is President of the African Society for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and is coordinating H3ABioNet, an H3Africa Bioinformatics Network including 34 insitutions in 15 countries, which aims to build capacity in Africa for analysis of data on human genetic factors related to disease.
Industry representative
Judit Kumuthini
jkumuthini at gmail.com
Judit received her BSc in Biomedical Science and MSc in Bioinformatics in the UK. She completed her PhD at University of Cranfield, UK, in Bioinformatics in genetic network (GN) extraction using a Bayesian belief framework. During her PhD, Judit established novel processes to learn genome-wide GN for E. coli, yeast and humans, from microarray data. Judit later joined the drug discovery group at GSK (Glaxo Smith Kline, UK) as a drug-target bioinformatician. After completing a post-doctoral research fellowhip at University of Cape Town, she became the Bioinformatics Manager at the CPGR and is now leading her team to provide expertise in various fields in bioinformatics. This includes providing service, support and R&D through collaboration, to life scientists in the “omics” field, and addressing a wide range of biological questions from genomics to system biology. Judit is the Associate Node Manager for the EMBNET, where she was elected as the PRP (Public Relations and Publicity) committee member. Judit is actively involved as a member or partner in various other networks and societies such as GOBLET, SASBi, ITFoM, PGENI, ASBCB, ISCB, the Genomic Standards Consortium amongst others. She is committed to human capital development in the bioinformatics arena to enhance the knowledge base in Africa. At the CPGR, Judit started and manages MIP and KTP, both aimed at developing specific skill sets required for the next generation of in silico biologists. She has trained and supervised many postgraduate students in Europe and Africa. Her broad research interests include African genetic rare diseases, standardization and good practice, algorithms and systems development, information management and visualization, and e-learning.
Judit Kumuthini
jkumuthini at gmail.com
Judit received her BSc in Biomedical Science and MSc in Bioinformatics in the UK. She completed her PhD at University of Cranfield, UK, in Bioinformatics in genetic network (GN) extraction using a Bayesian belief framework. During her PhD, Judit established novel processes to learn genome-wide GN for E. coli, yeast and humans, from microarray data. Judit later joined the drug discovery group at GSK (Glaxo Smith Kline, UK) as a drug-target bioinformatician. After completing a post-doctoral research fellowhip at University of Cape Town, she became the Bioinformatics Manager at the CPGR and is now leading her team to provide expertise in various fields in bioinformatics. This includes providing service, support and R&D through collaboration, to life scientists in the “omics” field, and addressing a wide range of biological questions from genomics to system biology. Judit is the Associate Node Manager for the EMBNET, where she was elected as the PRP (Public Relations and Publicity) committee member. Judit is actively involved as a member or partner in various other networks and societies such as GOBLET, SASBi, ITFoM, PGENI, ASBCB, ISCB, the Genomic Standards Consortium amongst others. She is committed to human capital development in the bioinformatics arena to enhance the knowledge base in Africa. At the CPGR, Judit started and manages MIP and KTP, both aimed at developing specific skill sets required for the next generation of in silico biologists. She has trained and supervised many postgraduate students in Europe and Africa. Her broad research interests include African genetic rare diseases, standardization and good practice, algorithms and systems development, information management and visualization, and e-learning.
Student representative
Candice Ryan
g07r2763 at campus.ru.ac.za
Candice received her BSc degree in Biochemistry, Microbiology and Zoology at Rhodes University. She continued her studies at Rhodes University completing her Honours degree in Biochemistry and Masters degree in Bioinformatics. She is currently doing her PhD in Bioinformatics at Rhodes University, Eastern Cape, South Africa. This year Candice assisted with a short lecturing course for the MSc Bioinformatics at Rhodes University in Basic Genomics and will be traveling to Germany to present her work at the ISCB conference. When not doing Bioinformatics Candice competes in ballroom and Latin dancing competitions, trains her team and is scrutiner for the South African DanceSport Federation (FEDANSA). She is also currently the Chairperson for the Rhodes University Student Sports Council.
Candice Ryan
g07r2763 at campus.ru.ac.za
Candice received her BSc degree in Biochemistry, Microbiology and Zoology at Rhodes University. She continued her studies at Rhodes University completing her Honours degree in Biochemistry and Masters degree in Bioinformatics. She is currently doing her PhD in Bioinformatics at Rhodes University, Eastern Cape, South Africa. This year Candice assisted with a short lecturing course for the MSc Bioinformatics at Rhodes University in Basic Genomics and will be traveling to Germany to present her work at the ISCB conference. When not doing Bioinformatics Candice competes in ballroom and Latin dancing competitions, trains her team and is scrutiner for the South African DanceSport Federation (FEDANSA). She is also currently the Chairperson for the Rhodes University Student Sports Council.
Web administrator
Prof Fourie Joubert
fourie.joubert at up.ac.za
Fourie Joubert obtained his PhD in Biochemistry in 2000. He is the Director of the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Unit at the University of Pretoria. His research interest is Human Health Genomics.
Prof Fourie Joubert
fourie.joubert at up.ac.za
Fourie Joubert obtained his PhD in Biochemistry in 2000. He is the Director of the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Unit at the University of Pretoria. His research interest is Human Health Genomics.