Siphumelele Ndlovu

Siphumelele
Ndlovu

University of cape Town
Biography

I have a biochemistry qualification from the University of Pretoria in which I majored in biochemistry and chemistry. During my second year some of the modules which I found to be interesting were; biochemistry in perspective which was an introduction to how the body produces certain compounds and how it responds to deficiencies in the body, immunobiology which basically focused on the immune system; how it responds to foreign bodies and how the response is elicited. These modules sparked my interest for pharmaceutical studies and medical biochemistry, particularly on how the human body works, in order to come up with novel drugs to treat as well as prevent certain diseases. Following completion of my undergraduate studies, I then decided to do my honours at the University of Cape Town in the Department of molecular and cell biology under the Biopharming Research Unit . The aim of my project was to express anti-rabbit scFvs fused to HRP in Nicotiana benthamiana. I am currently doing my Msc and the title of my project is: The use of a mouse phage display library to generate antibody fragments, namely single chain variable fragments (scFvs), to be expressed in Nicotiana benthamiana and used as reagents for ELISAs and western blotting. 

Research interests

My research interests are centered around the use of phage display libraries for the isolation of antibodies, as to whether they could possibly replace or provide antibodies that are comparable to those produced by conventional methods such as hybridoma technology and from transgenic animals.