Another in person meeting on Friday made for excellent fellowship as we welcomed Dr John Woodward (Guest Speaker) and special guests Dr Nathalie Viljoen and Ronnis Rene Daniels (Two Oceans Aquarium Foundation) also Gabriel Hamuy (Salesians Youth Institute). As special guests they shared information about themselves, their vocation and skills.
John is a research scientist at the University of Cape Town’s H3D Centre, where he contributes to Malaria drug discovery, medicinal chemistry and chemical biology research. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from UCT and has built an internationally recognised research career focused on infectious diseases and drug development. John was introduced by James.
Many years ago in 1988, Rotary leadership asked a similar question – “How do we solve the problem of Polio eradication and transmission world-wide”? Decades later, there are still two endemic countries in the world – Pakistan and Afghanistan. Providing Mosquito nets, Rotary found, was one solution to protect children and adults. The H3D Centre takes this challenge to another level.
John spoke at length about the Mission of the Holistic Drug Discovery and Development Centre (HD3 Centre) at the University of Cape Town. Their Mission l. Discover and develop innovatife life-saving medicines for infections diseases. 2. Build Africa specific models to contribute to improving treatment outcomes in African patients. 3. Develop drug discovery platform technologies and 4. Train African scientists in drug discovery related sciences.
John’s research interests include mode-of-action studies and target deconvolution of hit compounds active against the human malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum). He has done remarkable work and is well-respected in his field of research.
An interesting aside is that besides being a Scientist, Dr John Woodward is a musician and has been a broadcaster at Fine Music Radio (FMR) for the last 20 Years. When not occupied with molecules or music, John can be found on the squash court or on the trails of Table Mountain. Beyond academia, he is deeply involved in community engagement through science outreach, music education, and founder and director of the non-profit choral organisation. John was sincerely thanked by Lionel Daniel for an extremely interesting talk.
