The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) recently recognised eight young scientists for their scientific research work at the seventh Emerging Researchers Symposium (ERS) hosted at its Pretoria campus.

These young scientists were selected to battle it out for the best innovative research solutions to the challenges faced by society.  

The ERS, hosted under the theme “Innovation in Entrepreneurship”, provided 39 young researchers with the platform to demonstrate how their scientific research responds to the needs of industry, small and medium-sized enterprises and underserved communities, through oral and poster presentations.

The ERS was initiated to showcase the work done by emerging researchers at the CSIR, who include candidate researchers, researchers, individuals on the postgraduate bursary programme, students in the studentship programme, as well as postdoctoral programme candidates.

One of the young researchers recognised for having the best poster presentation was Vivey Phasha (35), whose poster presentation highlighted an anti-pigmentation product technology developed by the CSIR and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, which has proven to have a competitive advantage over existing cosmetic products in the market.

“In proving that the developed technology is effective against pigmentation, the CSIR optimised the production of Kojic acid and used it as a starting material to synthesise a stable derivative,” she said.

A cytotoxicity assay was then conducted on Vero cells to evaluate the safety of the produced compounds, resulting in novel compounds, which may be used to produce well-tolerated skincare products.

These compounds can be incorporated into cosmeceuticals for use by humans.

“This has a huge impact on the cosmetic industry and will have a significant outcome in low- and middle-income countries,” said Phasha. 

Of four emerging researchers acknowledged for their oral presentations, PhD candidate Khavhatondwi Netshiheni (30) was selected for her scientific investigation into the effect of consuming instant maize porridge fortified with Moringa oleifera leaves and termite powders on the nutritional status of children aged three to five years in Thulamela municipality, Limpopo.

“The project contributes to the sustainable development goal to alleviate poverty and hunger as it improves the nutrition of Africans, particularly children. This also encourages African health professionals to leverage indigenous foods for the good health and wellbeing of patients of all ages, reducing medical and food costs and appropriating economic growth,” she said.

Other researchers acknowledged for their research presentations are master’s candidate Thembela Xaba for microbial detoxification of aflatoxins in food and feeds, PhD candidate Rethabile Makole for the development of highly-sensitive p-n heterostructures-based sensor for detection of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene compounds, and candidate researcher Lucia Motsa for advanced agroprocessing technologies in dairy waste beneficiation.

In addition, master’s candidate Keletso Monareng was recognised for the development of machine learning models for predicting the density of sodium-ion battery materials, while candidate researcher Alma Truyts was recognised for work into whether lateral flow Immunoassays detect low-affinity biomarker antilipid antibodies in tuberculosis (TB).

In the research category, Charles Maphanga was recognised for optical biosensing of mycobacterium TB biomarkers for TB diagnosis.