University of Cape Town (UCT)
Universiteit van Kaapstad

South Africa

Research Highlights and Innovations 2019-2020

The University of Cape Town’s (UCT) geographical vantage point at the tip of Africa offers an exhilarating research environment that combines excellence with impact.

As a leading research university, UCT is one of the best places in the world to research Africa-specific problems, from the chemistry of malarial drug discovery to the development of urban Africa. We have strong collaborative networks across the globe and often form a nexus of partnerships between researchers in the global north and global south, particularly Africa. UCT is the first university in Africa to join the International Alliance of Research Universities. It is therefore not surprising that we attract researchers — from postgraduates and postdoctoral fellows to leaders in their field — from all over the continent and the world.

Healthcare for Africa

In a country that faces four epidemics, where most countries only have one or two, UCT has developed expertise in addressing healthcare in Africa. The Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine and the Drug Discovery and Development Centre have produced ground-breaking research, particularly in the areas of HIV, TB and malaria. The Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa is the first of its kind in Africa.

Climate and development

UCT has extensive interdisciplinary expertise in conservation, climate adaptation and community conflict. The AXA Research Fund awarded its first research chair in Africa to the director of the African Climate & Development Initiative, a leading research group. The Future Water Institute builds on UCT’s substantial research footprint in water and encompasses the skills and resources of departments across six faculties. UCT also hosts two Centres of Excellence under the African Research Universities Alliance, which draw together expertise from across the continent: the African Centre of Excellence for Inequalities Research and the Centre of Excellence in Climate and Development.

Experts in the southern skies

Through its global experts in the field, such as Professor George Ellis who co-wrote The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time with Stephen Hawking, and leading role in the Square Kilometre Array, UCT is a growing hub for astronomical and astrophysics research in Africa. Professor Russ Taylor is heading up the university’s involvement in the Square Kilometre Array project and the big-data challenges it brings.

UCT’s latest research

UCT’s research magazine, Research Highlights and Innovations 2019-2020, features research stories from across the university, as does its research and innovation news site.

1 August 2019 - 31 July 2020

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for University of Cape Town (UCT) published between 1 August 2019 - 31 July 2020 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Hover over the donut graph to view the FC output for each subject. Below, the same research outputs are grouped by subject. Click on the subject to drill-down into a list of articles organized by journal, and then by title.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

Count	Share
168	17.83

Outputs by subject (Share)

Subject	Count	Share
Physical Sciences	85	4.04
Earth & Environmental Sciences	30	6.91
Life Sciences	61	6.32
Chemistry	9	1.92
Angewandte Chemie International Edition	1	0.10
Inorganic Chemistry	1	0.29
Nature Communications	6	0.54
Organic Letters	1	1

Highlight of the month

A kernel of drought resistance

Drought-tolerant grasses derive their hardiness from changes in the expression of a handful of seed-related genes.

Major crops such as wheat, corn and rice are grasses, so understanding these pathways could help engineer more resilient crops.

Seed-related genes are activated in plants lacking water, but it is not clear whether these changes are a response to water stress or a desiccation-tolerance pathway.

To address this, a team led by researchers at the University of Cape Town grew a desiccation-tolerant and a desiccation-sensitive species under drought conditions and monitored the changes in gene expression in response to the lack of water.

They found that changes in the expression of seed-related genes were broadly shared between the tolerant and sensitive species, but a small set of genes only changed in the sensitive species.

The analysis also showed that many of the expression changes resulted from altered methylation, which may be a sign of chromatin remodelling.

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