According to lead author and master’s student Nicholas Tam, barefoot running has become a popular topic of interest. However, the UCT article debates the current scientific evidence for and against barefoot running. What is noted is that often injuries encountered when wearing shoes (usually occurring in the knee) may be exchanged for different types of injuries (stress fractures in and around the ankle). “Those seeking a miracle cure for running-related injuries should note that barefoot running may not be the sole answer and that benefits of barefoot running may require an accommodation period and may not be immediate,” says Tam.

The €500,000 award (over R6 million), made by the Institute’s Academy of Sciences, is a highly prestigious international accolade and was presented to Professor Mizrahi at a ceremony in Paris on 5 June 2013.

Paying tribute to Professor Mizrahi’s research, Pascale Cossart, a member of the Academy of Sciences, said: “What characterises Valerie Mizrahi’s work is not only her excellent research on Mycobacterium TB and TB, but also her very active involvement in the TB community in South Africa, on the African continent, and internationally.”

The Academy of Sciences, which makes awards to the most meritorious scientists and promising research projects, also lauded Mizrahi for her special qualities in mentoring students, particularly those engaged in TB research.

Professor Mizrahi plans to use most of the prize money to hire senior researchers, who are able to bring new skills to the laboratory that she runs with IDM colleague Dr Digby Warner, particularly in chemical biology and bioinformatics. She also plans to purchase laboratory equipment to provide opportunities for students from the laboratory to travel abroad for specialised training.

Pictured left, clockwise from top, are Emeritus Professor Eric Bateman, former director of the UCT Lung Institute, who received a lifetime achievement award in the form of the MRC’s platinum medal and Professor Keertan Dheda, head of the Division of Pulmonology, who was awarded a gold medal. Associate Professor Graeme Meintjes of the Department of Medicine and Professor Kelly Chibale, from the Department of Chemistry and director of the Drug Discovery and Development Centre (H3-D), based in the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM), were acknowledged with the MRC Young Scientist Award (silver medal).

The annual award is the highest recognition for exceptional cardiovascular research for German-speaking countries (including Austria, Switzerland and Germany) and can be given to scientists, cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons or paediatric cardiologists.

Professor Sliwa trained as a physician in Berlin, Germany, and worked subsequently at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she was the director of the Soweto Cardiovascular Research Unit. In 2010, she was appointed professor of cardiovascular research and director of the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research at UCT.

Professor Sliwa, an National Research Foundation (NRF) B2-rated researcher, is one of a rare breed of cardiologists in South Africa in that she is both clinically active and trained in fundamental molecular laboratory methods, combining laboratory and epidemiological skills. She has widely published in both local and international journals and books of various topics related to cardiovascular medicine.

She is skilled in applying basic research methods to clinical problems and then devising novel and appropriate therapy. A major example is her work on heart failure of previously unknown origin occurring in African women around the time of childbirth (post-partum cardiomyopathy). By studying a laboratory rodent model, she and Professor Denise Hilfiker-Kleiner from Hannover, Germany, established the molecular mechanism of the disease and devised a hormonal cure with bromocriptine.

The Hatter Institute falls within the Department of Medicine and is part of the Medical Research Council’s Inter-University Cape Heart Group, which comprises three groups from UCT and two from the University of Stellenbosch. The unit strives to facilitate national and international research collaborations to consolidate and expand existing efforts to combat the most serious cardiovascular threats to health, and to improve overall prosperity in the region.

“This gives new recognition to our unit and research work on the international stage,” said Professor Rayner, who is head of the Division of Nephrology/Hypertension in the Department of Medicine at UCT/Groote Schuur Hospital and president of the South African Hypertension Society.

A UCT alumnus, Professor Rayner is renowned for his ground-breaking work on the genetics underlying salt-sensitive hypertension in black and coloured South Africans. A unique gene – thought to have originated among the San people – has been linked to this. It makes these population groups more susceptible to strokes and heart disease, as they don’t excrete salt effectively.

renowned for his ground-breaking work on the genetics underlying salt-sensitive hypertension.

A clinician-scientist, Professor Rayner has been researching the mechanics of hypertension for the past 15 years. He received his PhD in December 2013.

Professor Wood first came across “slim disease” as a doctor in Zambia in the early 1980s, before the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) had been identified, or anyone knew that acquired immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) was the result. He had no idea it would one day become a global pandemic – and that it would shape his career and research.

That body of work, nearly two decades of pioneering HIV/AIDS research, has earned the Oxford-trained specialist physician and infectious-disease expert many accolades and honours, culminating in his NRF A-rating.

Among his many achievements has been developing the first community HIV clinic in Gugulethu in 2002, which led to the development of national HIV protocols, implemented in 2004.

Professor Wood says he would like to turn his focus now towards tuberculosis (TB) and the very high rates of TB infection, particularly among South Africa’s children, as well as the intersection of TB and HIV. What has perhaps been lost in the HIV/AIDS landscape, he says, is that “TB is an unmitigated disaster. There is more TB in Cape Town than in Canada, the US, France and Germany put together. And it’s getting consistently worse. We need a new approach to understanding TB transmission.”