CAN THIS BIOCHEMIST BYPASS ORGAN DONORS?
By Tafline Laylin
I follow Kevin Dzobo to the cafeteria at the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town, where his young son, Kevin Jr., sits absorbed in his tablet. They both seem eager to get on with their Saturday, yet the stem cell researcher patiently indulges my questions about his work in regenerative medicine. Dzobo, one of 16 emergent African scientists to be awarded the prestigious Next Einstein Forum fellowship for 2017–19, is chipping away at potentially groundbreaking medical research that could one day give humans what the humble salamander already has: the ability to regenerate their own tissue and organs.
Dzobo, 42, detours from discussing the details of his work to mention the nearby Groote Schuur Hospital — the site, in 1967, of a stunning advancement in human medicine when Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first human-to-human heart transplant. Yet barriers to organ transplantation remain, says Dzobo, like locating a donor or a match. “What we’re trying to do is come up with ways to find this endless supply of organs and tissue,” explains the senior research scientist with the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and lecturer at UCT’s Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences.
http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/can-this-biochemist-bypass-organ-donors/81979?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01022018&variable=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610
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