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Celebrating 100 Years of Health Sciences
primary functions of the unit are to research factors
influencing physical performance and health, and to
disseminate knowledge and skills through education.
Specifically, the research aims to develop a novel
understanding of integrated human function during
exercise and to use this knowledge to promote health
and well-being; to treat and prevent specific chronic
diseases; to treat and prevent injuries and medical
conditions associated with sport and exercise; and to
optimise exercise performance.
Director: Professor TD Noakes
E-mail: timothy.noakes@uct.ac.za
Web: http://www.essm.uct.ac.za/
Centre for Supramolecular
Chemistry Research
Located in the Faculty of Science, this group was
constituted in 1997 and focuses on the physical
chemistry of supramolecular systems. Various host-guest
compounds are synthesized, their structures analysed by
means of powder and single crystal X-ray diffraction, as
well as thermal and spectroscopic techniques, and the
results related to their physical properties. Our research
efforts concentrate on the beneficiation of drugs through
investigation of their polymorphs, solvates, co-crystals,
and cyclodextrin inclusion complexes; on the synthesis
and characterisation of open framework transition metal
structures and purely organic porous materials, and on
the synthesis and characterisation of large supramolecular
assemblies and the study of guest selectivity in organic
host-guest systems.
Director: Professor MR Caira
E-mail: Mino.Caira@uct.ac.za
Web: http://www.supramolecular.uct.ac.za/index.htm
Structural Biology Research
Unit
The Structural Biology Research Unit co-ordinates and
promotes the experimental determination of biological
structure at the University of Cape Town. The Unit
is a grant funded entity, operationally located in the
Division of Medical Biochemistry, Department of Clinical
Laboratory Sciences, that employs staff, provides a home
for post-graduate students and post-doctoral fellows
and conducts research. It has members who are UCT
academics who wish to conduct structural research and
who are prepared to apply for grants to fund research in
the Unit. The Unit also has affiliates, either from South
Africa or abroad, who participate in the activities of the
Unit in a variety of ways – including but not limited to:
providing advice and expertise, exchanging materials,
providing resources and using the resources of the Unit.
The visualization of the structure of biological objects
ranging from cells to macromolecules with microscopic
or atomic detail is essential for understanding how
living systems work. The knowledge of the structures
can be exploited to produce medicines and vaccines,
ecologically friendly industrial processes and agricultural
products. The unit specializes in determining structures
experimentally by electron microscopy and X-ray
crystallography and makes extensive use of computer
basedmodelling to extend the results. The unit has access
to unique resources for the purification and preliminary
characterization of proteins, cryo-electron microscopy
and X-ray diffraction at a synchrotron beamline. It plays
a pivotal role in South Africa’s BioEconomy strategy by
providing the core expertise for establishment of the
discipline of Structural Biology in the whole country and
applying the technology to a wide range of problems of
scientific, medical and industrial interest.
Director: Professor BT Sewell
E-mail: Trevor.Sewell@uct.ac.za
Web: http://sbio.uct.ac.za/
Gender, Health and Justice
Research Unit
The Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit at the
University of Cape Town’s Faculty of Health Sciences
(Division of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology) conducts
progressive research in the area of women’s rights. Faced
with staggering levels of violence against women in
South Africa, the unit is dedicated to improving access
to health and justice services for survivors of gender-
based violence. The unit uses inter-disciplinary methods
from various academic fields, including law, the social
sciences, and public health, to contribute to policies
and laws, and to advocate for social justice. Among its
current projects are monitoring legislation relating to
sexual and domestic violence, as well as inter-disciplinary
research relating to women in prisons, domestic and
rape homicide, access to post-exposure prophylaxis
after rape, “conflicting laws” and torture in post-conflict
African states.
Director: Associate Professor L Artz/Acting Director:
Dr K Moult
E-mail: Lillian.Artz@uct.ac.za and Kelley.Moult@uct.
ac.za
Web: http://www.ghjru.uct.ac.za
Research Groupings
associated with this theme