Faculty of Health Sciences
Prof TJ Mariba, Dean
Telephone number: 012 354 2386
Fax number: 012 329 1351
E-mail address: thanyani.mariba@up.ac.za
Message by the Dean
The Faculty of Health Sciences continues to strive at merging clinical service delivery with world class research. Its success in achieving this is witnessed by the steady increase in publications.
In keeping with the overall vision of UP our faculty has made the establishment of units, centres and institutes a strategic goal. This aspiration is strengthened by the already existing Medical Research Council research units as well as the active participation of faculty members in the UP Water Institute.
It is gratifying to see that the research in the faculty has diversified so that not only is there a focus on molecular biology and patient oriented research but research into medical education has also featured prominently this year.
Collaboration with South African and international research partners remains a priority. In various fields such as new drug development, HIV research, maternal and child health, environmental health and oral health important partnerships were formed. This is demonstrated well by the work done with Prof SW van der Merwe as collaborator which appeared in Nature this year (An African origin for the intimate association between humans and Helicobacter pylori Nature. 2007 Feb 22; 445(7130):915-8.) as well as that in which Prof S Cassol was a co-worker (Effect of age, polymicrobial disease, and maternal HIV status on treatment response and cause of severe pneumonia in South African children: a prospective descriptive study. Lancet. 2007 Apr 28; 369(9571):1440-51).
An exciting new development is the research on transcultural gerontological nursing care in association with the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. The department of Human Nutrition is also one of nine South African universities involved in research on the micronutrient status of the population at risk to assess the impact of food fortification longitudinally.
The faculty has been able to secure increased funding from the NRF and MRC. A number of research programmes are funded by international funding agencies or in collaboration with Northern hemisphere partners. Dr Lekan Ayo-Yusuf from the School of Dentistry has been appointed on the World Health (WHO) tobacco regulation scientific group – TobReg, and serves as an example of our local researchers who are increasingly recognized abroad.
This research report reflects the dedicated endeavours of clinicians and scientists to engage in research with the ultimate aim of improving the health of the people of South Africa.
Prof TJ Mariba
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