The Durban University of Technology’s (DUT’s) Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Dr Charlette Tiloke received the Best Poster Presentation Award at the NanoWorld Conference, which was held in Paris, France earlier this month (March 2019).
The conference explored a range of scientific sessions including, Life sciences & medicine; Energy & Environment; Nano-electronics and Nanotechnology applications. Some of the topics covered include nanotoxicology and management of health risk.
Dr Tiloke’s presentation was titled: ‘Niazimicin and its phytonanoparticle modulate Caspase – 9 splice variants, IAP’s and NFκB signalling in lung cancer cells’.
She said her poster was inspired by the natural resources which have been used in many communities as dietary requirements or treatment of plethora of ailments. “Moringa oleifera (MO) commonly known as Drumstick tree is found in South Africa (SA) and is used in traditional medicine to treat a variety of diseases (Goyal et al., 2007; Fahey, 2005, Djakalia et al., 2011). Almost all parts of the tree are used in traditional treatments however the leaves have shown to have highest nutritional and medicinal properties,” she said.
“Cancer is one of the leading cause of death in SA and diagnosis is expected to increase over the next few years, which is alarming. Affordability and accessibility to treatment is also a major concern and often rural populations rely on traditional herbal medicines for treatment of various ailments. In addition, current therapies have several side-effects and are very expensive therefore alternate therapies are being actively being investigated. We have shown the antiproliferative effects of MO crude aqueous leaf extract in HepG2 liver cancer cells (Tiloke et al., 2019 in press). Gold nanoparticles (NP) are also showing potential in biomedical applications and could be used as an anticancer agent (Gurunathan et al., 2014),” Dr Tiloke added.
She added that she is honoured and excited to have received an opportunity to share her research in an international platform. “I couldn’t believe that the research has been recognised internationally. Although, it was a tough competition amongst candidates from USA, Russia and South Korea, I am honoured that South Africa was represented and that the research we produce is of international standards,” she said excitedly.
Dr Tiloke also expressed her appreciation to DUT for providing her with a platform and necessary resources to conduct innovative research. “This has enabled me to be more confident in my work to try my best at the international conference. I am grateful to my supervisors, Prof Robert Gengan and Prof Anil Chuturgoon for all their guidance, support and encouragement during my Postdoctoral Research Fellowship,” she said.
Dr Tiloke is currently completing a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Applied Sciences at DUT, which is a study that is in collaboration with the Department of Medical Biochemistry at the University of KwaZulu – Natal.
Pictured: Dr Charlette Tiloke with her award winning poster.
Nduduzo Ndlovu and Waheeda Peters
