Dr Farai Muchadeyi - Senior Manager ARC-BTPEmail: MuchadeyiF@arc.agric.zaPhone: +27 (0)12 529 9352External links: Google Scholar Profile
Dr Muchadeyi's research interests are in the characterization, sustainable utilization and conservation of livestock genetic resources. Her current ongoing research involves the application of genomics and population genetic tools in inferring on genetic diversity, identifying adaptive features associated with livestock species from marginalized farming environments and investigating how the genetic adaptation can be harnessed in mainstream commercial agriculture. Her other projects involve the unravelling of the causal mutations of genetic disorders and the inclusion of molecular genetic marker information in selection programs. She currently heads the Animal Genetics and Genomics research group at the Biotechnology Platform (ARC) managing various projects on livestock and wildlife genomics.
Lerato Mpye - Project Co-coordinator ARC-BTPEmail: MpyeL@arc.agric.zaPhone: +27 (0)12 529 9121
Mrs Mpye has been coordinating ARC-BTP projects since 2011. She administrates HR, finance and BTP students’ related matters.
Dr. Khanyisile Hadebe – Senior Researcher Email: MdladlaK@arc.agric.zaPhone: +27 (0)12 529 9227External Link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ktzS2pcAAAAJ&hl=en
Dr. Khanyisile Hadebe (Mdladla) is a Senior Researcher: Genomics. Her research interests are characterizing biodiversity and the use of population and landscape genomics to investigate signatures of selection and adaptation in indigenous Animal Genetic Resources (AnGR). She is involved in developing sustainable improvement and conservation strategies, such as genomics-assisted community-based breeding programs (CBBP) to assist small scale rural farmers optimize production and environmental fitness of their livestock to help farmers overcome future challenges of climate change. She has published as lead author in Heredity, Animal Genetics, Small Ruminant Research, Tropical Animal Health and Production and Preventive Veterinary Medicine.
Dr Magriet van der Nest - Senior ResearcherEmail: VanDerNestM@arc.agric.zaPhone: +27 (0)12 529 9472External links: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Yr5ylvUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra
Dr Magriet van der Nest's primary area of interest is unraveling the molecular basis of self/nonself recognition. During her PhD at the University of Pretoria, she studied the self/nonself recognition system of Amylostereum areolatum, which is a basidiomycete fungus of considerable importance in pine-based forestry. During her Postdoctoral studies at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, she participated in research on model fungi in the genus Heterobasidion where she specifically looked at self/nonself recognition from both bioinformatics and molecular perspectives. Her current research focuses on utilizing population biology, genetics, genomics to increase our understanding of the biology, ecology and evolution of key species. For example, employing genome wide association studies (GWAS) to identifying putative variations that are implicated in complex traits (e.g., pathogenicity in fungi, genetic adaptation to harsh environments in animals).
Email: RotimiA@arc.agric.zaPhone: +27(0) 12 529 9356Google Scholar link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=eraM42QAAAAJ&hl=en
Dr Adeola's research interest includes data-mining and computational analysis of high-throughput -omics datasets such as Genomics, Transcriptomics, Metagenomics, Phylogenetics and Metabolomics.
Dr Dirk Swanevelder - Senior ResearcherEmail: SwanevelderD@arc.agric.zaPhone: +27 (0)12 529 9472Dr Swanevelder works on various genomics projects of agricultural interests. His research team focuses on sunflower breeding, phenomics, genetics, genomics and genetic engineering for yield, oil quality, and other traits. His other interests relate to crop genome engineering, developing of diagnostic technologies, and the functional genomics of industrial and agricultural important microbes and their application.
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