Under the directorship of Prof Kelly Chibale, the H 3-D Drug Discovery & Development Centre hosted its 1st drug discovery symposium at the beautiful Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town. This symposium which took place between the 15th and 18th of October 2012, was attended by the ACGT intern, Mr Thabo Khoza. The symposium kicked off with the newly appointed minister of Science and Technology, Mr Derek Hanekom, opening the symposium. This was the minister’s first official address as the minister of Science and Technology. The minister handed over to Prof Chibale to chair the symposium.
The theme for the symposium was “New Paradigms in Drug Discovery” and focused on drugs for malaria, TB, and cardiovascular diseases, diseases which are prevalent in Africa. The symposium had speakers from across the world with the Keynote Lecture on “Drug Discovery for Malaria: Results from the NITD Led NGBS Consortium” being delivered by Prof Paul Herrling (Chair of the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases in Switzerland). This four-day symposium was well attended by students and researchers from South African Universities and science councils. Few representatives from the ACGT partner institutions (UP, CSIR and Wits) attended the symposium with some even presenting their posters at the event.
On the 3rd night of the symposium, the delegates were treated with a celebration dinner in which Mrs Yvonne Chaka Chaka, who is also the UNICEF special ambassador on malaria in Eastern and Southern Africa , entertained the delegates with music.
The symposium ended off with a series of lectures, some of which focused on the pharmacogenetics as well the state of research in South Africa, particularly capacity building in the field of drug discovery.
To view the full programme click here.