One of the first things I learnt to do as a toddler, even before I could walk properly, was to build puzzles. I loved it so much that, as I got older, I used to joke that I wished I could become a professional puzzle-builder when I grew up. But I became an academic research scientist instead, and along the way I realized that my wish had actually come true: I did become a professional puzzle-builder. However, these research puzzles do not come in a box with a convenient picture and edge-pieces to guide you. Here you must conceptualize the entire puzzle, imagine what the picture might look like, devise methods to go and find the pieces, assemble them and hope that the finished product actually resembles a picture that makes sense. Sometimes we even end up with an altogether different picture than what we originally envisaged, but it is also one of the most exciting aspects of why we do academic research. 

I completed my PhD in Biochemistry, and even though I am working within the Division of Medical Physiology now, biochemistry is so foundational to all aspects of biomedical research that I still draw on my background as a biochemist on a daily basis. The combination of biochemistry and metabolic physiology provides infinite puzzles to solve and build, and along the way, also enables us to conduct impactful biomedical research.

The initial focus of my postdoctoral work was to use the stem cells that reside within fat tissue (adipose tissue) as a model for cell biology research, but over time I developed a vision that these adipose stem cells (ASCs) can be better utilized as a model with which to study the cellular mechanisms underlying obesity. However, obesity is a condition that affects the entire physiology and metabolism of an individual, not just the adipose tissue. Therefore, in order to understand the interplay between metabolic dysfunction, obesity and ASCs, I had to become well-versed in systemic metabolic physiology, and in particular how obesity research is conducted on a whole-body level, specifically in rats as a chosen pre-clinical model. As my research in this field progressed and publications were being prepared, as a relative late-comer to the field I realized that we were facing a substantial level of dogmatic assumptions and expectations around the features of rodent models of obesity. I have since published several articles addressing and challenging this dogma, not only to pave the way for publishing my own future research findings, but to improve the way we conduct pre-clinical obesity research.    

Obesity is a condition that affects over 50% of South Africans (but, disproportionately, 70% of South African women), and yet the fundamental differences in disease mechanisms between male and female obesity are only now starting to emerge. This is not just a local problem; across the globe, pre-clinical obesity research has been persistently performed only in males and male-derived cells and is consequently plagued by a low degree of translatability. I have made it my personal academic mission to address this shortcoming, both by highlighting this issue in my publications, and by improving the study design of my own research projects to include males and females. I am currently conducting NRF-funded research into the mechanisms underlying the adverse metabolic (including obesity and insulin resistance) and reproductive side-effects of olanzapine, an anti-psychotic drug widely used by men and women of reproductive age. Through this research, I aim to explore and highlight the fundamental differences between male and female metabolic physiology and mechanistic differences between male and female diet-induced and drug-induced obesity, in an effort to contribute to more effective therapeutic interventions.

On a personal level, I love asking questions (ask anyone who has ever worked with me). I love all the aspects of academic research: the reading, the experimental work, the writing, even the funding applications. I love interacting with others about my work and I love those rare moments when you get to just sit and think about things. I am passionate about evidence, and about communicating evidence in academic publications and to the general public. I am passionate about postgraduate student supervision, in particular the emancipatory aspects thereof, to “raise” students to become competent independent researchers themselves, or to otherwise make positive contributions to society.